Tangled Thread - Tips, Trick and Tutorials in Sewing & Stitching

using fabric to make origami

by Chloe on April 20th, 2007

I’ve been doing origami for years now and of course - being a fiber person, I need to see if I can use fabric to make it! My mother, Noreen has been using fabric in origami for a long time. I believe there’s also a book coming out about using origami to make art quilts.

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.

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POSTED IN: Fabric, How To, links, techniques