How To Make A Fabric Post Card, Fabric Art Card, or Fabric Art Quiltlet

shown:

Row 1: supplies, fabric art or postcard cutting, optional quilting of fabric

Row 2: creating inchies, design options: using inchies, or quilted fabric

Row 3: art card or postcard, ideas for embellishment, serged edge postcard

Complete Tutorial here:

Making Art Fabric Postcards

Ever since quilters and fabric artists began to form internet support and idea groups, their has been an upswing in creative swaps. Recently, the whole idea of fabric art cards, fabric trading cards or fabric postcards has become extremely popular. With the addition of creative applique techniques, beading, inchies, photographic effects and so forth, there are now more and more ways to create, to share and to trade.

All of the various creations involve the same basic techniques as in quilting. It was only natural that quilters have taken the art paper trading cards...which were similar to the scrapbooking techniques of collage and embellishment.... and created miniature quilts, which I call quiltlet's, or fabric art cards or poscards, instead. These can be as small as one is capable of making them or as large as one chooses. If you plan on mailing them, they must, however, fit into a regular, legal, manilla or priority envelope for mailing.

All techniques involve a fabric sandwich wrapped around an interior surface, only instead of the interior bieng a soft batt, it is usually a very stiff, very thin interfacing such as Timtex or Peltex. Fabric art cards or postcards have a creatively embellished front, the stiff interior and then a fabric backing. All layers can be adhered with heat 'n bond, glue sticks, aerosol adhesives or simply pinned and stitched together.

Any fabric art or post card with thickness or dimensional trims such as my beads and embroidery, can still be postmarked and mailed...usually in a protective envelope. Simple, fairly flat art or postcards, within the legal 4"x6" sizing, can be mailed...with the additonal of a cardstock backing marked and labeled 'postcard', stamped (one or two stamps depending on the weight) and mailed.

You will need:

1. Sewing supplies:

Basic: needles, threads, scissors, rulers

Optional: rotary cutter, mat, rulers
2. Fabric:

Basic: fabrics for the front and back

Optional: card stock or Peltex for backing of a more traditonal art postcard

3. Interfacing or batting:

Peltex or Trimtex for a thin, extra stiff interior for a postcard effect

Batting of your choice for a more traditional quilted effect

4. Other:

Fusible interfacing, gluesticks, aersol adhesive for attaching front to middle, middle to back
Embellishments or trims of any kind...beads, buttons, sequins, yarns, ribbons etc.
Threads, embroidery floss, or perle cotton for hand sewing or quilting

Sewing machine and sergers if machine quilting, sewing or edge finishing

Directions:Step 1. Cut front and back fabrics (cutting them 1" bigger than desired finished size.

For a final 4"x6" postcard, cut two rectangles of fabric, 5" x 7"each.
Step 2. Cut trimtex or peltex to final desired size of entire project.

For a 4"x6" postcard, you cut it to that size...4" x 6"
Step 3. Place front section, right side up, over interfacing, and embellish.

Note: if you hand sew or embroider or add beading or trims, this creates the quilting
Step 4. Finish edges

Option A: Wrap edges under and behind..hand sew down to backing

Option B: Serge or zigzag all edges together with any style or width of stitch desired

Check out my related posts:
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For Better, For Worse

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Each and Every Day is a Gift

Love Is All There Is...

Contributions: Ami Simm's "Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts"