Image: sxc.hu

1. Pine needle baskets
2. Old chairs with crazy paint jobs
3. Paintings on old windows
4. Hand painted pots & frames
5. Torch work glass beads
6. Origami
7. Kiln formed glass
8. Lace making
9. Turned wood
10. Creels
11. Sculpted candles
12. Forged silver jewelry
13. Silk creations and scarves

Have you ever made any of these?

Post from: Blisstree

Thursday 13 – Unique Crafts to Consider

The next step is to fold the point up and press.  Place the fabric under a weight to cool for a couple of minutes.  It helps to set the crease and makes your life easier!

This step is kind of tricky to explain – open up the last fold you made and fold the top layer of fabric up towards the top of the “wing”.  The bottom of the fold should end at the crease from the last step.  Repeat the same fold: it should look like this inside:

Sorry about the blurry photo – somethings are hard to photograph with one hand

Did you remember to press the butterfly with lots of steam & the let it cool under a weight?  Good!

Take the top layer of fabric and fold it down along the small triangle in front.  Repeat.  This forms the lower wings of the butterfly.  Press, steam etc – you should know the drill by now

Iron the butterfly using lots of steam and then pinch the center together.  I’ve pinned it to my ironing board to cool & let the shape set.

I’ll show you the final shaping using thread & we’ll do some embellishment in the next post.

Post from: Blisstree

back to the silk butterflies

I’m getting married this summer and instead of using fresh flowers, I got the bright idea to make corsages & boutonnieres out of fabric. I’m using paper butterflies to decorate, but didn’t really want to use paper to make the corsages. I decided to try out duppioni silk – it’s light, has a crisp hand and looks gorgeous!

Just a reminder – all images are copyright and cannot be reproduced or copied.

Here’s part one of the tutorial:

I’ve ironed a crisp, heavy-weight non-woven fusible interfacing to the back of the silk & then cut it into an exact 4″ square. I recommend using a gridded mat & Olfa cutter to get the measurements perfect.

At this stage you can run a thin bead of glue or fray-check around the edges. You can also wait and do a decorative edge later.

Now fold the diagonal edges together, wrong sides in, and press well. Make sure to match the points.

Open the fabric up and fold the opposite corners together. The first fold line should be down the center of the triangle. Press, using lots of steam.

Open the triangle up and fold the square in half to make a rectangle, wrong sides together. Press.

Open up the fabric again, and fold the square right sides together to make a rectangle. Press. You should now have a square of fabric with creases like this:

Fold the square to make a rectangle again (wrong sides together) but also fold the diagonal creases in, to make a triangle shape like this:

Press well and place a weight on the fabric to cool. You can also find Noreen’s instructions on making the butterflies here. We’ll finish the butterfly in the next post.

Post from: Blisstree

using fabric to make origami