Ever since I did the fabric postcard tutorial for CraftStylish last week, I’ve been obsessing over this pendant idea. Seemed to me that if you just shrunk the postcard project a little, it would make a really cool pendant. I like the result!
Here’s how I made it:
Just as with the postcards, I’m using Friendly Felt as the basis for this project. It’s a recycled-fiber felt that’s stiff, so you can do all kinds of dimensional things with it. Me likey.
So you’ll need two pieces of Friendly Felt, cut to the size you’d like your pendant to be. You’ll also need one wonderful scrap of woven fabric, cut to the same size. (This cool little castle print comes from a vintage napkin.)
In addition, cut a scrap of regular felt that’s about 1/4″ smaller on all sides than the other three pieces. This felt is the internal padding of your pendant.
You’ll also need two pieces of fusible web, cut to the same size at that felt padding. And then we sandwich all this together: a piece of Friendly Felt on the bottom, fusible web on top of that, and the padding felt on top of that.
Place the other piece of fusible web on top of the felt. Then place the fabric on top of the fusible web. Match the edges of the fabric and Friendly Felt as best you can.
Follow the package directions for the fusible web to iron all these layers together. And by the way, I’d recommend putting a pressing cloth over your pendant before you press it. It’s just that pressing cloths aren’t so photogenic.
After fusing, your layers may have shifted a little. Take a moment and trim them so all the edges meet.
Next, we do two steps on the sewing machine: first, we’ll quilt the pendant. This quilting can take any form you like. You might stitch around the design on your fabric, like I’ve done here, or you might quilt over the entire pendant in some kind of pattern. Or you might quilt all free-form-like.
You can use any color thread you like for the quilting, by the way. If would also be fun to see the quilting done in several colors of thread. Oh, boy are there possibilities!
The next machine step is to make a tight zig zag around all sides of the pendant. I’m using a buttonhole stitch here, which works nicely. I like to stitch twice around all four edges so they’re well-covered with stitching.
From here, you can do a bit of embellishing. I’m embroidering my pendant, but you could also sew on some small beads or buttons. You could paint it with fabric paints. You could glitter it. You could do all kinds of stuff.
With the embellishments done, you can trim away any little frays around the edges and apply some Fray Check.
Take the other piece of Friendly Felt now and apply a generous amount of glue. Keep the glue about 1/4″ away from all sides so it won’t ooze out later.
Place an eye pin into the glue, placing it so the little loop a the top sits at the center top of the pendant.
(I’m using Gem Tac here. You could also use good old E6000, or any glue that adheres trims to fabric.)
Sandwich the two layers together. Place your pendant under something heavy for a few hours until the glue dries. Check on it a couple times to make sure the eye pin hasn’t shifted position.
And voila! I like these – they’re lightweight, but the layering and fusing gives them a nice little “heft.” And I love the way they showcase precious bits of fabric.
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