Monday, August 31, 2009

Fabric Selvage Postcard Tutorial








As promised, here is my attempt at a tutorial. There are several other postcard tutorials out there on the net, but I've tweaked them a bit to make what works for me. If you make a selvage postcard using these instructions, please let me know if you had any difficulty following the steps. And, of course, I'd love to see your final results! And if I can get it to work, I plan to make a PDF file available on my blog someday. Updated -- link to the PDF is on my blog's sidebar.

This tutorial is for non-commercial personal use ONLY. Feel free to share with others, but please give the author (me) credit. NO COMMERCIAL USE ALLOWED. Thanks.














Supplies --
-- one 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" piece of white/cream fabric for the back of the postcard

-- one 4 1/2" x 6 1/2" piece of fusible fleece (fusible on one side only)

-- one 4 1/4" x 6 1/4" piece of fusible web (I used Heat 'n Bond Lite)

-- thread (at first I thought I'd use red, but changed my mind to pink after I had the selvages arranged)

-- permanent fabric marker

-- fabric selvages
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1. Center the fusible web on the wrong side of the white fabric and iron on. When cool, remove the paper backing. Set aside.



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2. On the fusible fleece (fusible side up), arrange the selvages the way you like, making sure to overlap the finished edge of a selvage on top of the unfinished edge of the previous selvage. Once you have decided on a design, with the iron gently fuse the selvages onto the fleece. This will help keep the selvages on while you sew them on the machine.


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3. Sew the selvages onto the fusible fleece, sewing very closely to the finished edge of each selvage strip. In this sample I used a straight stitch, but I've also used a small zigzag stitch at times.


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4. Trim the selvages to about 1/4" all the way around the fusible fleece. Discard the trimmed off pieces of selvage (unless they're long enough to be used in a future project).


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5. If your sewing machine has an alphabet stitch and you choose to embroider a message across the front of the postcard, press the unfinished edge of another selvage piece under (wrong sides together) 1/4" or so.


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6. Sew this selvage strip on, sewing very closely to the pressed edge. Here I've used a straight stitch, but a fancy stitch would look nice, too.


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7. Stitch your message on this strip, making sure you don't start or finish too close to the edge (the card will be trimmed a bit later). You could also just stitch the message on one of the selvages already on the card if there is enough white space.


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8. Center the white fabric on the unfusible side of the fleece and fuse the pieces together. Let it cool.


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9. Trim the card to 4" x 6".








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10. Satin stitch all the way around the edges of the card.








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11. Using a permanent fabric marker, write "POSTCARD" on the top of the back side. Write your message and heat set the writing. (I usually add my personal label before I satin stitch around the edges).



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12. Add a FIRST CLASS STAMP (not a postcard stamp) and take it to the post office to be hand-cancelled. Don't let the clerk tell you it needs additional postage! I've sent these (from at least three different post offices) to Oregon, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, North Carolina, and a number of other states, as well as locally with no problem at all.

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That's it. Have fun!
To see samples of my postcards, just click on the "postcard" label on my blog's right sidebar.




7 comments:

Unknown said...

Very nice!! Thank you for the great tutorial!

Mary on Lake Pulaski said...

Thanks Anya...I'm going to try this today!

Vivian said...

Very pretty. I appreciate the great tutorial. I'm thinking about sending some at Christmas, and this gives me a great start.

Terri said...

what a great idea thank you for the tutorial.

CJ said...

Thanks for the tutorial. The postcard you sent to Quilt Taffy is adorable!!

--- Ruth --- RuRebo --- said...

A wonderful tutorial.
Thank you very much!

ShereeSews said...

Thanks for all the inspiration to use up my selvedges. I've been saving, but not doing! Your blog is very informative.

ShereeSews
www.sewfabsew.blogspot.com