3 ways to make fabric Christmas cards

The simplest method of all to make fabric Christmas cards is to sew together some strips, squares or any shapes of fabric to make a panel about 6" by 8".  Take an A4 piece of card, fold it in half across the width and sew the panel on to the card.  You can either sew with a thread the same colour as the card to blend in, or you can use a contrasting thread to show a pattern on the other side of the card.  The fabric panel does not need to be rectangular - you can extend beyond the ends of the card.

 The 2nd method for making fabric Christmas cards is again to make a panel by sewing together shapes of fabric.  These can be any size or shape.  When you have a panel the right size, cut a piece of calico or similar light coloured fabric the same size.  This fabric needs to be light coloured because this is where you will write the message. 

Sew the calico to the right side of the patchwork panel on 3 sides only, making a pocket.  Turn this pocket inside out so that the right side of the patchwork panel is now showing.  Gently ease out the corners to give a good shape.  Cut a piece of card slightly smaller than the pocket and slide it into the pocket. Slipstitch across the 4th edge to close the pocket.

You now have a delightful handmade card and can write a message on the back.  Test your pen on a scrap of fabric just to ensure that the ink doesn't bleed across the fabric.  Most biros write really well on fabric.

 The 3rd method is my favourite method.  Once again make a patchwork panel of fabric shapes.  Any size or shape, regular overall shape or irregular shape - there are no restrictions.  This happens to be a great way of using up scraps of fabric as well as making great cards that really impress people!

When you are satisfied with your panel, cut a piece of light coloured fabric slightly larger than your panel and a piece of fast2fuse slightly smaller than your panel.  If you haven't come across this before, it's a double sided fusible interfacing - sticks to the fabric on each side of it.  Great stuff - I use it a lot for cards and decorations.

Place the backing fabric flat, put the fast2fuse on top and then your patchwork panel on top of this.  Iron this sandwich of fabric with a hot iron, giving it long enough for the fast2fuse to do its stuff (ie fuse everything together).  Then turn over and do the same on the other side.

 Trim the edges of the cards, then sew right round the edge using a full zigzag stitch with short stitch length so that it's almost satin stitch.  This neatens the whole thing, holds everything together and provides a frame for the card.

You can use any colour thread as shown.  I have even used metallic thread for special cards.

One more tip - if you are short of time, as I usually am, you can make a bigger panel (A4 for example) and cut it into several cards after you have ironed on the fast2fuse and before stitching the edging.