Sparkling Quilted 3D Butterfly Art

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Cover your walls in a kaleidoscope of quilted butterflies with this design from Sophie Tarrant! Combining layered fabrics and delicate stitching, this quilted butterfly pattern uses soft applique techniques to create its beautiful, three-dimensional form and is composed primarily of fat quarters. Finish your butterfly art with striking hand-stitched embellishments like sequins to make your unique design truly sparkle.

Skill Level: Beginner

Designer Notes:

We used soft jersey to make our binding as it’s easy to manipulate around curved edges – making it ideal for the wings of our butterfly.
When stitching the veins onto each wing, start every line from the narrowest point and stitch outwards. This keeps the veins neat and evenly spaced, and helps prevent puckering in the quilted layers as you sew.

Materials:

Fabric: A selection of 3 colorful printed cottons, one fat quarter of each; plus, one fat eighth of pale blue jersey for binding
Lightweight quilt batting: One fat quarter
Fusible webbing: 2 pieces measuring ~4in square each
Sequins (optional)
Jewelry wire: 4in length
Shadow box frame: 12-inch square
Paper (for mounting): 12-inch square
Thread: White (or color of choice)
PDF Template – This is located at the bottom of this page. Please see printing instructions below.
- For this template, please make sure that it is printed at 100% scale.

PRINTING INSTRUCTIONS:

Note: To download the template, click on the pattern download button at the bottom of the page. We recommend opening your pattern download using Adobe Acrobat.

Tools:

Chalk pencil or soluble fabric marking tool
Iron
Scissors
Sewing clips or pins
Hand sewing needle
Sewing machine
Hot glue gun or other strong, fabric-safe adhesive
Pliers (for bending jewelry wire)

Piecing Instructions:

Before you begin, print the butterfly template page at 100% scale. Measure the 1” test square to verify printing accuracy, and adjust your printer settings if needed. You may find it helpful to print two copies of the template page, since the Wings and Wing Highlights for the Upper and Lower pieces will need to be cut separately.

Begin by roughly cutting two 4-inch squares from one of your fabrics. Lay one piece out with the right side facing down, then cut a 4-inch square of lightweight quilt batting and place it on top. Finally, place the second fabric piece on top of the batting, with the right side facing up. Place one of the Lower Wing templates onto the fabric and draw around it using a chalk pencil.
Work a straight machine stitch all around the line you have just drawn to sew the layers together then cut the shape out, leaving a 1/8-inch seam allowance. Next, draw five veins across the wing, ensuring they all extend from the narrowest point, as pictured. Making sure to backstitch the starts and stops, machine topstitch over each vein using white thread now to quilt the layers together, or you can wait to mark the veins until after you have added the Lower Wing Highlight in the next step.
Take the second fabric and lay it out flat. Use the Lower Wing Highlight template to trace two pieces (one standard and one reversed) and cut them out. Place the pieces together with right sides together and sew around the perimeter using a 1/4in seam allowance, leaving a 1in gap in the seam. Snip the curves of the seam allowance, taking care not to cut into the seam, then turn the Lower Wing piece right sides out through the gap and press. Position the Highlight on top of the Wing, and pin it into place, and topstitch around the perimeter to secure the Highlight in place, closing the Highlight seam gap in the process. Then, re-work the topstitched veins to affix the Highlight (or mark and topstitch the Step 2 veins now). Repeat Steps 1–3 to make the second Lower Wing in the same way as the first, making sure the print of the fabrics mirror each other neatly.
Take the third fabric and lay it out flat with the right side facing down. Fuse a piece of webbing to the wrong side of the material, leaving the paper backing in place. Trace the Upper Wing Highlight template onto the fabric and roughly cut about 1/2in outside of the marked lines. Peel away the paper backing, and retrace the template as needed on the webbing. Then, carefully fold the fabric along the pointed upper edge to the wrong side by 1/4in and press to secure. Trim the excess from the lower edges. Repeat to make the second Upper Wing Highlight in the same way.
Use the Upper Wing templates to make two upper wings in the same way as the lower ones: Create a 4in fabric square and batting sandwich, draw around the template, stitch around the outline, and add the topstitched veins. Do not cut the wings out yet. Position the Upper Wing Highlights on the Upper Wings, aligning the raw edges as shown, then press to secure. Topstitch along the pointed upper edges to secure each Highlight in place, then rework the topstitched veins to affix the Highlights. Cut around the sewn edge of each quilted Upper Wing.
With the four wings complete, it’s time to edge them with DIY binding. Cut four 15in x 1-1/2in strips of pale blue jersey fabric. Take one strip and clip it around the edge of one wing, aligning the raw edges of both. Stitch in place using a 1/4in seam allowance, joining the ends and trimming the excess as needed. Repeat for all four wings.
Wrap the binding around to the back of each wing to conceal the raw edges. Clip in place, then hand stitch the binding down neatly on the reverse. Gently ease the binding around the curves as you go to achieve a smooth finish.
If desired, hand stitch a selection of sequins to the wings. Secure the thread at the back of the work between each sequin so that if one becomes loose, the others still remain firmly attached.
Using the Body template, cut two body pieces (one reversed). Place them wrong sides together and machine stitch around the perimeter using a 1/4in seam allowance, leaving a 1in gap along one side. Insert a small rolled piece of quilt batting to lightly pad the body, then close the opening by hand or machine to finish.
Bend the 4in length of jewelry wire in half. Splay the two halves slightly, then use pliers to gently curl each end to form the antennae.
To mount your butterfly, lay the backing board of a shadow box frame flat with the right side facing up. Glue a 12in square of paper to the board – you can choose a colorful design or just plain white. Position the butterfly wings and body centrally and glue each of the components into place, applying adhesive to the inner tips of the wings and the back of the body only, then adding the antennae last. Once secure, gently shape the wings and antennae to give a fluttering, three-dimensional effect. Fit the backing board into the box frame to complete your project.