Butterfly Collection

t was only the other day that I cavorted through my garden with a virtual butterfly net (the neighbors love this) and caught these butterflies. Be assured that no butterflies were harmed in this exercise, though I’m sure you’ll agree that I found some unusual specimens!

These were created by folding rectangles of fabric using origami, and you will find instructions at the end of this post. I plan to frame this page so as to enjoy my beautiful butterfly collection!

(By the way, sorry for the odd spaces in this post. The original post was created several years ago with a different format. Updating the post proved to be problematic! But the photos at the end should clarify the folding process.)

Here are the folding instructions for the butterflies. The small butterflies were made with 3 x 4″ rectangles, and the large butterfly was made with a 4 x 5″ rectangle. The easiest fabric to work with is laundered cotton of the type used for quilts. Do the folding on your ironing board, and iron with a steam iron as you go.

 

 

 

 

 

Butterfly folding instructions.

 

 

 

Note: The last steps for making the butterfly shown here are a little bit unclear.  Scroll down to the bottom to see some photos of these steps. Hope they make things clearer!

 

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Fold the inner top corners down.

Turn this over and fold on the same lines.

This is the result.

Open up the front and back right side. Press on the “X” Repeat on the left side.

Shows the result of pressing on “X”

Both sides done. Fold down the lower right wing. Repeat on the left side.