Quilted Furoshiki

The Japanese wrapping cloth known as the furoshiki is said to have been first used in the Muromachi Period(1392-1573), when people spread it out in place of a bath mat or wrapped one's clothes with it. I took the concept one step further and decided to reuse fabric scraps to make this quilted cloth wrap to be used to wrap gifts instead of paper and to encourage the recipient to reuse as well.

First step is to gather your favorite fabric scraps. Using similar types of fabric is the best. Cottons, polyester, silk, or nylon are the best but select the same kinds for this project.

Place two pieces of same width sized fabric, right sides together, about half an inch below one another. The length or the height does not matter as long as they are about the same. Trim the edges as you go. Little discrepancies do not matter since you will be sewing bindings all around the edges when you are done with adding all the squares.

With a threaded needle (make sure your thread is long enough for the entire width of the square), gather the stitches onto the needle without pulling the needle out until the needle is full of stitches. Then, gently pull the needle and let the stitches form while tugging the fabric from the edge. Make sure the fabric does not pucker.

If it puckers a little, that is OK since you can flatten out any puckered areas with your fingers when you are done with the square or iron the entire piece when you are done.

When the row is finished, fold down the seam allowance of the bottom square over the top square edge, and stitch across, covering the edge.

This is the finished right side of the fabric. You can iron the piece at this point but as mentioned earlier, you can wait until you are done with the project.

This is the finished wrong side of the squares. The tucked edges should be neat with no fraying edges showing. This set is done and now you can add the rest of the pieces. You can work two pieces together and add them all later or attach them as you go. I attached a set at a time so that I can see the progress.

Make a bias tape with a piece of fabric and sew the edges around the wrap with right sides together. Then, fold the edges down onto the wrong sides and pin all around.

Using slip stitching, finish the binding edges.

Finished Right Side.

Wrong side will look like this.

Close-Up of the Wrong Side

All Wrapped Up.

Great gift wrap alternative for wrapping that special Mother's Day gift...or any gifts.