November 8, 2010

Wish upon a Snowflake - Tutorial

As I was sorting through our holiday decorations, I stumbled upon some instructions for paper snowflakes and stars, which inspired me to cut up some snowflakes of my own -- out of fabric. You may know how to do this already, but here is a quick refresher:

Materials

  • a square fabric remnant, this example uses a 6 inch square
  • very sharp scissors

Directions

Base Shape


Iron the fabric square flat.
Create a triangle by folding the square on the diagonal from one corner to another.
Fold the triangle in half along the center. Iron.
Open up the triangle and take the right corner and fold it over to the lower left at about a 60 degree angle along the middle crease.
Repeat with the other side until you have a symmetrical shape. Iron.
Cut a straight line across the base of the shape to create a triangle.
This is the basic shape from which you start a snowflake

Cutting out the Snowflake

To make a 6-pointed star shaped snowflake do the following:
Cut out a triangle on the base of the snowflake. The deeper your triangle, the longer the points of the star will become.
On each side of the triangle cut out a shallow oval.
Snip off the tip of the triangle
Open up the snowflake and iron it.
That's it.

You can use this snowflake to decorate a card, include it as part of an applique project, or attach it to your window for the holidays with a cornstarch and water "glue." If you wish you can also adhere fusible web to the fabric square in the first step and create an iron-on applique. Obviously there are many ways to cutout different shapes from the base shape. You may want to use paper squares to experiment with different patterns first and then transfer your designs to a fabric square. 

Have fun!

Simone
groundsel.etsy.com

9 comments:

Holly said...

Thanks for the great tutorial - these are the kind of smowflakes I like!!!

Metalicious said...

Wow I never knew how to make them, thanks Simone!! So useful for the holiday season!

PurtyBird said...

Neat-o!

KimmChi said...

what a great idea! and I love that you did it on cloth! Long lasting

Karina Glaser said...

Very pretty!

Anonymous said...

so cute! thanks for sharing :-)

Unknown said...

love it...already percolating with applications of this for holiday garland...

Kelly/Aperture Agog said...

I can't wait to give this a try. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to make some of these! I'm including them in my Friday Favorites this week!