How to Make Beautiful Wall Art With Fabric

Susan Myers
by Susan Myers
5 Materials
$5
2 Hours
Medium
I’m a quilter and that means that I have tons of fabric scraps laying around waiting on my next project. And what better way to decorate a quilters home than by creating something with fabric! Using a technique called Iris Folding, here is a great way to make something amazing with fabric scraps. And it includes a free pattern too!
For this project I used:
 6 ea. 8″ x 8″ canvases
Assorted fabric pieces in greens and purples
Lots of hot glue
Balsa wood strips (for finishing)
Brown acrylic paint
Iris Folding Pattern- Click here for the Pattern
Print out the pattern. Cut your fabric into roughly 2 inch wide strips for easy folding.  Then beginning with the number one, fold a selected strip of fabric in half lengthwise and place it directly over the number one section of your pattern with the fold towards the inside.


Select a second strip of fabric, fold it lengthwise and lay it over the number two section, overlapping the first strip being sure to have the fold toward the inside.  Add a dot of hot glue at the intersection of the two fabrics.
Do the same with the third section, and so on. You will get a rhythm to this as you go and use plenty of hot glue, so keep extra glue sticks handy.  Always remember to place the fold of the fabric towards the center.
 Always remember to place the fold of the fabric towards the center.
The final section will just be a square in the center.  Cut your fabric larger than the center square and hot glue it down.
Then flip it over!  Cool, right?
To mount these on my canvases, I simply put a bunch of hot glue down and centered the finished piece onto my canvas.  And then used hot glue to glue the fabric down over the sides and towards the back.
You could stop here, but I wanted a finished look on my edges.  Sort of a frame.  So I cut strips of 1/4″ balsa wood to fit around the edges of the canvas.  And of course, I used hot glue to hold them down.  I really love hot glue.
My final touch was to paint the frames brown.
I’m very pleased with the result.  I plan in the future to experiment a bit more with the Iris Folding technique.  There are so many possibilities!
Resources for this project:
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Susan Myers
Want more details about this and other DIY projects? Check out my blog post!
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Frequently asked questions
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3 of 5 questions
  • Terre McCanna Terre McCanna on Mar 09, 2018

    I love this! Could be used for a numberof applications, correct? I was thinking of book covers for journals that I might gift

  • Paula Meyers Paula Meyers on Apr 04, 2018

    I love this! just trying to figure out how I can enlarge it to go on a 12 by 12 canvas. Any types would "GREAT"?

  • Zoeysmom Zoeysmom on Sep 21, 2018

    This is absolutely beautiful!! I have leukemia & my son just recently purchased his 1st new home. This seems like a great project for me but my question is, (since you are so talented here), I have a collection of different size squares of styrofoam that are about 1-2 inches thick & would like to find a decorative way to use them. If you any suggestions or if you have made anything with styrofoam, I would really appreciate hearing from you. These are so lightweight & could easily be hung on walls as possibly pictures, etc., with Velcro. Any suggestions?

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  • Patricia Hinkle Patricia Hinkle on Sep 20, 2018

    Very good instructions, I’m a quilter over run with scraps. I’m printing out the template now.

  • Kelly O. Kelly O. on Oct 14, 2018

    This is amazing! Going to try it when I get home from vacation. Right now, going to check out your site. Thanks for sharing!

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