Fringe making

First I cut a piece of card, with an opening, wide enough for the presser foot...
then I cut a second identically sized piece of card, holding the cards together I wound the cord onto the two, until it reached the desired size.

I gingerly slid the uncut piece of card out and laid the card with the window onto the base fabric. I sewed through the window - just a simple straight stitch, up and down a couple of times. I then tore the card to release it - ta-da! Super thick fringe....

In the future I would be tempted to sew onto a ribbon then placement wouldn't be an issue - easy! (I trimmed off the stray tails after sewing it all down!)

Raw edge artificial flower applique

1. Gather your materials
- Choose a background fabric. I prefer ones that have some movement - colour but not too much so that it's distracting. Iron on HEAVY facing - if the fabric is flimsy - consider 2 layers.
- Choose your thread. I used up all the dog-ends on the bobbins - waste not and all. I like there to be some interest with the stitching - if you do this figure out a suitable bottom thread.
- Choose lower end flowers, not fancy silk ones (unless you already have them!) they should have some substance. Choose those that have some colour variation with-in the 'bunch' and substance. You need may quite a number of petals or leaves depending on the size you are working with.
- Get your sewing machine out - give it a good clean (an oil if needed) and change the needle. Put the darning foot on.


2. Disassemble the flowers or leaves, there will be dots of glue, wire and plastic stoppers to contend with - you may need pliers.

Remove any spines or plastic shaping things, the spines come off if you go from the thinnest part to the thickest - a thumb nail does the trick.

3. If you are sewing individual flowers down then think about placement and do 2 or 3 at a time.

If an all over - layered look is the outcome, then put on few pieces, sew them down and repeat. I didn't cut the threads till the 'layer' was finished. Then I cut them en mass.

You need to put the feed dogs down and play with tension before starting on the main piece. There is no need to tie ends off - you can pull the threads to the back before you trim the threads if you prefer. Build up the layers, change the thread colours, there are no rules.

Building up the layers

Tada! finished.

This one I cut into postcards. Follow the link and there are more examples.

Want one?

Using the same technique

Above and below A4 size

'Spring' ATC

These 3 cards were made with the theme -wild weeds. I don't like yellow or orange flowers. In my garden they are 'weeds' I used a daisy type flower, there was quite a hole in the center so I stitched a sequin over it.

Hydrangeas. I built up the background first with the large leaves then used the layering technique as per the leaf tutorial. There was quite a 3D element to the larger petals, they distorted as I sewed down the edges, making it hard, so I sewed a single straight line down the center petal and back to the center of the flower, then sewed around the leaves using a figure of 8, a couple or 3 times.

This was the card which inspired me to look at this technique from Carol in AK.

Fabric Paper III

So the finished piece looks remarkably like the last picture of II's post. Just slightly lighter. The fabric paper is very flexible and really surprisingly strong. (detail above)

I love the way the light shines through the sections (above) - it reminds me of the Dale Chihuly (or here) walkways, where he places vessles above you on a perspex sheet and you walk under them - seeing the light shing through.

Anyway - I learnt quite a lot from this - next time - if there is a next time - I will - use more glue, different size fabric, some paper, fewer sequins, a single sheet of tissue paper and a brayer to compress everything.....

Whilst I like the result but am not too sure what to do with the sheet. It didn't meet my expectations of being 'sand like' so I shelved that idea. I owe a hand made book mark - so use it for that - it' was easy to sew and rotory cut. I have a lot left over.... postcards?

Fabric Paper II

I kept on sprinkling the threads and snippets - trying to make them spread, I wanted 2 halves, a yellowy 'sand' half and a darker green/grey one, so put the materials accordingly.


Once all the threads were on I sprinkled a thick coat of PVA over the whole piece, this was hard not to 'mush' all the other stuff. I used a sponge brush thing - it was good as I could dab and splatter the glue without touching the threads too much. T1 then helped by sprinkling a very large amount of sequins over the whole piece.

Then the tricky bit. Putting the tissue over the whole, I opted for smaller pieces thinking the whole piece would be hard. I think either way would be hard. I then put it in a corner to dry.

It took a full 24 hours, the last few hours I peeled it away from the plastic and allowed the air to circulate around the whole piece.

Fabric Paper I

I've seen several references to fabric paper - so decided to make some, the long drying times has put me off - people have said it's 'days' the hot weather with a nice breeze should speed this up. I followed these directions roughly. I assembled all the bits, these I've been collecting for a while, threads and thin bits of fabric, some old sequins, the base fabric (I used some recycled open weave cotton) and the tissue for the top.

My original plan was for the fabric to look a little like 'sand' so I tinted the PVA glue with some acrylic paint.



I put a generous layer of the glue onto the backing - which was on a plastic sheet. I then started sprinkling the threads and chopped up fabric on the surface, trying to keep it even.

Shaker / Snowglobe Snowman Tutorial

This is how I made the cards, please feel free to use this technique - post a link back or a comment in the comments section if you make a card this way!


Find a suitable fabric for the background. Iron heavy weight stiffener to the back

Find suitable vinyl/plastic, I used the wrapper from a set of sheets, it needs to be flexible yet thick and stable. Mark a circle using indelible pen, that is a different colour to your background. I used a 3.5 inch circle. Then cut the piece of vinyl down, leaving a good inch around each side.


Find a object to put inside your snow globe, Iron on a fusible (I used bond-a-web) and cut it out.

Then use the cut out circle of vinyl to position the object on the background, remove the vinyl - iron on the object onto the background.


Pin the vinyl to the base, keeping away from the circle.

Using the drawn line as a guide for the edge of your presser foot, use a walking foot or Teflon coated foot and sew a line inside the circle using a long stitch length. Leave a good inch opening at the bottom - Essential!

Use a sharp pair of scissors to trim sewn the vinyl to 1/16th of an inch away from the stitching line. Leave the un-stitched base wider.

Using a wide satin stitch, center your foot on the straight stitching line and zig-zag over the raw vinyl edge, take care to set the stitch length to one that does not perforate the vinyl too much and cause it to fall off, I set my machine just over 1, which is slightly open, but solid enough to create a graphic line. The first line of stitching will keep everything 'in' so this is a decorative stitch. Do not close the bottom opening.

Now the fun bit, fill the pocket with shaky things. I used sequins, beads and some micro-beads. The only suggestion I have is that you add 2 or 3 items that have height. They will ensure that the pocket is not squished too much and all the other items will have space to shake about.

Shake all the contents to the top of the globe - away from the opening and stitch a straight line of stitching across the opening.

Cut out a base, this is 1 1/4inches wide, I just snipped it to fit. Use a glue stick to position it into place, taking care that you cover the opening fully and that you don't move the shaky bits into the base area. Use a satin stitch to sew this into place, again, this should not be a tight satin stitch as you don't want to totally perforate the vinyl.

Trim the final piece and finish as desired!

Finished!