Shibori Sunset Postcards

I finished these cards last week but just got around to editing the photos this morning.I made these for December birthdays. I always think about the December cards a lot because I want to make sure the cards are nothing like Christmas. The sunsets at the river over Thanksgiving inspired. Fortunately I have a good stash of shibori fabrics to choose from!

​I thought I'd take some time and show how I made them.

I start by preparing some card bases. I use Stiffy interfacing from Longcreek Mills. It's close enough to Timtex but a lot less expensive. I am almost through a 35 yard roll and ready to order more! I fused Mistyfuse to one side and then cut it into 4" x 6" postcards.

Next is picing the fabrics. I wanted a dark sky so picked a blue and black shibori pieces. Each was overdyed with orange to give me the sunset streak. I had a yellow/orange shibori for the horizon line and a brown textured dye for the water. I cut these into roughly the sizes that I need and amde sure that the sky pieces all have orange along the bottom edge.

Next I arranged the fabrics the way I wanted them and fused everything in place. The sky and water pieces are always on top of the orange. Once they are fused I trim from the back to the edge of the postcard base.

The stitching is very simple on this. I used monofilament thread and stitched along the bottom of the sky (to hold it in place) and then along a few of the shobori dye lines. it's amazing how much that little bit of stitching added movement to the sky.

I wanted to add more to the horizon line so I pulled out some yarns and couched them to the horizon. The secret to this is having long tails on the yarn pieces so that you have something to hold on to as you start sewing. I used a wide zig zag and monofilament thread. Trim off the yarn ends after everything is stitched down.

For the water I found a shiny dark brown thread and stitched along some of the dye lines. This stitching is done with a free-motion zigzag. If you have never tried free-motion stitching with a zig zag give it a try. It makes a very cool line.

​After this stitching I fused on the back. For my backs I prefuse Mistyfuse to some fabric and then cut it into 4" x 6" rectangles.

The fussiest part of these cards was the edge stitching. I changed colors for each section and it really didn't take that long. This idea came from Monica Kinner-Whalen. I've been following her art for several years and she uses this finishing technique on her cards.