A New Version of an Ancient Art

Look what happened when we switched paper for fabric.

Origami is the Japanese art of folding paper into shapes without the use of a knife, scissors or glue. The word origami comes from the Japanese ‘ori’ meaning folding and ‘kami’ meaning paper.

It is an art which can be accomplished by anyone with a sheet of paper and the patience to follow the instructions, resulting in a simple or complex representation of a subject.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

This led me to wonder how origami might work if fabric is used instead of paper. I hate throwing fabric away so I always have a box full of small scraps just waiting for that perfect project to come along … and this could be it!

The first decision was what to make, so I spent some time researching the origami technique online, learning the basic techniques in paper first. I soon realised that the folding of the paper is SO precise, and that achieving a satisfactory result relies on your ability to create the perfect corner and razor sharp crease. It soon became evident that fabric would not be ideal for many shapes, certainly the more complex ones, as the fabric would create far too much bulk and would not hold its shape well enough. My quest continued, and I soon discovered the butterfly. This appealed to me because there were enough folds in the design to create a shape with interest, but not so many that the fabric would be unworkable.

So I moved on from paper to fabric which was really exciting! I selected fabrics which had small floral prints and plains to complement them. I was keen to use colourful designs but also wanted to avoid large prints as the details would be lost in the folds. Choosing a plain and a print seemed a good idea as it would visually enhance the inside and outside of the butterfly wings, although this was purely from a personal taste perspective as samples I tried with only one fabric design worked well too.

The fabric choice proved to be key; stiff fabrics fold crisply but are often too heavy and bulky. Cottons fold well into crisp points but are generally quite soft and floppy. The solution was to apply fusible interfacing to the back of one of the fabrics before stitching them together. This gave just enough structure without becoming bulky. Perfect!

Now that I had my design, my fabrics and the folding technique mastered I was able to spend some happy hours practising until I came up with the finished result.

It has made me more creative in my thinking whereas before I made these simple bookmarks I had never really considered that origami should be done using anything other than paper. I guess I need to push boundaries more and experiment with ideas and techniques to see what else can be achieved.

If you would like to have a go at making our pretty butterfly bookmark, follow the link below to our kit. Use code SUBSTACK10 at checkout to receive 10% discount.

Have a great week!

Suzanne, Charlotte and Rebecca