The Folding Easel Tutorial (Flatfold)

Gather all the needed supplies to assemble a folding easel:

1. Cutting Mat (I highly recommend the investment of one of these, they protect your work surface and are easily wiped off if glue should get on them.
2. Cutting instruments (rotary cutter, mat knife, scissors, etc. )
3. Ruler
4. Mat Board (or card board)
5. Quilt Batting
6. Backing Fabric
7. Stitched Design
8. Tacky Glue
9. Cording/Ribbon/Embelishments

*Helpful Hint* be close to a sink to wipe of fingers that are very sticky with glue!




STEP ONE:
Take some real time to cut out the appropriate size of mat board so that they are ALL the same size and will all line up appropriately. (mine shown is 6 inches x 6 inches) **You will need 4 cuts of the mat board to finish the flat fold.


STEP TWO:
Cut out TWO squares of fabric that is 2 inches larger than your mat board cut outs. (my mat boards were 6 in. x 6 in. so my fabric squares were 8 in. x 8 in.) This will allow you to have 1 inch of foldover fabric to glue to the back of the cut out when covering them.

STEP THREE:

Cut ONE piece of fabric that is 2 inches wider than the width of your cutout, and 6 inches longer than your cutout. (for instance my cut out is 6 in. x 6 in. for this cut of fabric I will cut out 8 in. wide x 12 in. long piece of fabric.) This will allow a 5 in. long flap that will help form the flat fold.

STEP FOUR:

Cut out and glue a piece of quilt batting to one of the flat fold cutouts.

STEP FIVE:

Mount your stitched piece on this quilt batting cutout, making sure to center it properly and glue the sides to the back of the cutout. *Helpful Hint: I use wooden clothes pins to hold the freshly glued piece until the glue is somewhat dry.

STEP SIX:

Cover TWO of the cut outs with the two pieces of fabric that are the same size cut.

STEP SEVEN:

Cover the final cutout with the longer piece of fabric: 1 inch allowance at the bottom and sides, the extra 5 inches should be at the top of the cutout as shown.

Spread your glue on the bottom and glue down the bottom first. Then spread glue from the bottom all the way to the top of the fabric as shown:

Fold over the fabric and glue down top to bottom, the final product should look like this:

STEP EIGHT:

Take 6 inch long piece of fabric scrap and spread the center with glue like shown:

Fold over the sides and glue down to get a no sew fabric strip as shown:

STEP NINE:

Take the cutout with the fabric flap and lay down flat on the worksurface wrong side up. Glue one end of the fabric tab to the middle bottom of the cutout. Then spread glue and all around the wrong side and place a second cut out (wrong sides together) on top of the flap cut out

Using clothes pins to hold the cutouts together until the piece is dry. This is what it should look like *notice the fabric tab is sandwiched between the two cutouts.

STEP TEN:

Take the final cutout and place it on top of the glued cutouts (wrong side face up!)

I use the clothes pins to hold the bottom edges of all three cutouts together as shown and then glue down the flap to the wrong side of the cutout. It should look like this:

The top edge should look like this:

STEP ELEVEN:

Take the fabric strip and glue to the center of the top cutout.

Then glue the stitched piece to the top of the last cutout. *Notice the fabric strip is now sandwiched between the cutouts. Also note that the material strip length will need to be played with so that the proper angle of the flat fold is achieved. You can glue it up higher or lower to get the proper spread of the two flatfold sides.

STEP TWELEVE:

Embelish the sides of the folding easel with cord or ribbon. Place a thin strip of glue along the edge of the flatfold as shown:

Glue down the embelishments along the edge....I use straight pins to hold the cording in place until the glue is dry:

STEP THIRTEEN:

ENJOY YOUR BEAUTIFULLY FINISHED FOLDING EASEL!!