Fabric Butterfly Wall Art by guest Sedef Imer

I always get excited when it’s Sedef’s turn to share a guest tutorial on Diary of a Quilter. And today is no different. Sedef, who is in Australia, is sharing some downunder sunshine with is today with this fun fabric butterfly wall art project. Doesn’t it put you in the mood for summer? It feels like a ray of sunshine during these northern hemisphere winter blahs.

Take it away Sedef!

Hi, it’s Sedef Imer here, from Down Grapevine Lane . I’m delighted to be back as a guest blogger on Amy’s blog and today I will be showing you how to make this sweet three dimensional fabric butterfly wall art!

You can make it in all colours of the rainbow as I have done, or using a single fabric, or in ombre shades of one colour family to coordinate with your room decor. Don’t be shy to get creative!

MATERIALS

Small cotton fabric scraps in assorted colours (butterfly fronts)
15″ square of felt in a neutral colour (butterfly backs)
15″ square of fusible web such as Vliesofix or Wonder Under
21″ square white cotton
21″ square quilt batting
Stapler & curved edge scissors
19″ square (50cm) picture frame

CUTTING

(13) 3″ x 3.5″ rectangles in assorted colours (large butterflies). Note: For my large butterflies I used 2 red, 2 pink, 2 yellow, 3 green, 2 teal, 1 blue, and 1 navy rectangles. 

(12) 2.5″ x 3″ rectangles in assorted colours (small butterflies). Note: For my small butterflies I used 1 red, 1 pink, 3 orange, 1 yellow, 1 green, 1 teal, 2 blue and 2 navy rectangles. 

(13) 3″ x 3.5″ rectangles of fusible web (large butterflies)

(12) 2.5″ x 3″ rectangles of fusible web (small butterflies)

(13) 3″ x 3.5″ rectangles of felt (large butterflies). Note: You may have noticed that I used assorted colours of felt for the backs of my butterflies. Feel free to do the same if you happen to have lots of felt in different colours as I did. I wrote this tutorial assuming most people would use a single colour of felt for all the butterflies.

(12) 2.5″ x 3″ rectangles of felt (small butterflies)

FABRIC BUTTERFLY WALL ART ASSEMBLY STEPS

Get Templates Ready

1.  Find the PDF template here and print to A4. Make sure you save it to your computer and open in Adobe Acrobat to print – if you print it straight from your browser this often causes size problems.

2. Cut out the four heart pieces in the template along the outlines. Sellotape them together to make a big heart shape. Cut out the rectangles on the last three pages of the template, with a butterfly in the middle of each rectangle – DO NOT CUT ALONG THE BUTTERFLY OUTLINES.

Make the Butterflies

3. To make a large butterfly, apply fusible web to the back of a 3″ x 3.5″ rectangle, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

4. Peel off the backing paper and fuse this piece onto a 3″ x 3.5″ felt piece. Press with iron on the fabric side not the felt side (if you are using artificial felt it may stick to your iron). Note: In the picture below I’ve cut my felt piece slightly bigger for clarity.

5. Take a large butterfly template and staple this (using a regular stationery stapler) into the middle of your felt/fabric piece in a few places as shown. You can use pins instead of staples, but pins distort the fabric more than staples, which makes cutting out the shape harder.

6. Using curved scissors, carefully out the butterfly along its outline. Remove and discard the template paper and staples. Repeat this process to make 13 large butterflies. Note: there are a few spare butterfly templates just in case you make mistakes and need to repeat the process. 

7. Repeat the same process using the 2.5″ x 3″ fabric, felt, and fusible web pieces to make 12 small butterflies.

Assembly & Finishing

8. Take the large square of white cotton. Fold in two, gently finger pressing a crease where the center fold is. Open and fold the other way, gently finger pressing the fold again to create a four-square grid.

Place the heart template on the table and place your white cotton square on top. Assuming your fabric is not too thick, you should be able to see the heart template through the cotton (if you can’t see clearly, tape the template to a window).

Line up the finger pressed folds on the fabric with the lines on the heart template to make sure your heart is centred on the fabric. Using a removable fabric pen (I used Pilot Frixion) trace the heart outline onto the fabric, and also the small lines inside the heart which are the position marks for the butterflies.

9. Place the white cotton on top of the quilt wadding, and baste together with quilting pins. Quilt the entire background as desired (I quilted mine by sewing parallel straight lines, spaced approximately ⅜″ apart).

10. Take a butterfly and position it on your background, lining up its centre with one of the marks inside the heart. Refer to the drawing on the first page of the template and note the orientation of the butterfly, i.e. whether it is facing up or down. Sew in place with a straight stitch down the centre of each butterfly, using a coordinating colour thread, securing start and end stitches well. Tip: I used invisible thread (a clear nylon thread) to sew all the butterflies in place to remove the need for changing the top thread several times. 

11. Repeat for the remaining butterflies until they are all sewn in place. Remove the pen marks (I used a Pilot Frixion pen which is heat removable so I just blasted the finished artwork with a hairdryer).

12. Trim your artwork to 19″ square (or the opening size of your picture frame). There is a lot of allowance outside of the heart to trim it down to the exact size you need. Remove the glass/perspex in the picture frame and carefully place your artwork into the frame.  If you prefer to keep the glass make sure the butterfly wings are not crushed when placing them in the frame. You can also finish your artwork as a mini quilt if desired.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and use it to make your own fabric butterfly wall art.

Please come visit me over on my blog Down Grapevine Lane and you can also follow me on  Facebook and Instagram  for free tutorials, patterns, and general sewing inspiration. 

Happy sewing!

Thank you so much Sedef! I can’t wait to see what you all do with this fun project. It’s a great one for using up scraps and would make such a beautiful piece of sewing room or nursery wall art.

You can check out Sedef’s previous projects here including her popular Quilted Leaf Coaster tutorial, Fabric-covered Needlebook tutorial, and cheerful Scandi Pillow design.