A Fabric Scrapbuster: DIY Fabric Washi Tape

I love Christmas time. I find all the decorations beautiful. I get sentimental seeing the kids get so excited about all the lights and presents. The Christmas carols bring back so many memories. I almost cried the other day when Case told me Jesus came down from heaven. (We’ve been talking a lot about the Christmas story lately.) I have fun picking out gifts for others. And, I am extra excited and absolutely looking forward to my entire family being together for Christmas day this year.

There is one little itty bitty issue I have with Christmas time. A couple years ago, I made a little pact with myself to not use red in my home decorating. I don’t know why, but it always seemed to throw off the whole look and feel of my room. I also rarely buy any clothes with red. It’s a lovely and vibrant color. It really is, but somewhere in life I grew tired and burnt out on the color red.

Before Case was born, I made him a baby quilt. It had red accents in it. I still have the leftover fabric sitting in my closet. I don’t use red in any of my quilts. I have no use for it. But I’m a quilt fabric scrap hoarder. I despise throwing away useful scraps. I’m not always sure what to do with them.

Then I started seeing fabric washi tape showing up. It got me thinking. Christmas is one of the few times where I can pull out some red fabric and *maybe* appreciate it. 🙂

I decided to give some fabric washi a whirl and use up some red fabric. I used it this year for sealing our Christmas card envelopes. I am also using it for taping Christmas presents. It’s been a great way to use up some of those beloved red scraps of fabric!

I have seen one tutorial that recommended using carpet tape. I bought some, but I haven’t tried using it yet. I found this double stick duck tape in my husband’s work room. In an effort to clean out some of his clutter, I decided to use it up. It’s worked wonderfully. 🙂 Another sweet reader found this tape and recommended it.

1. Roll out the tape on the wrong side of the fabric. Since I knew I was going to use quite a bit, I rolled out a few strips at one time.

2. Trim the fabric into strips with a rotary fabric cutter. Then, if you wish, you can trim them down into three to four inch strips for using on envelopes or packages. For precise angles, I used my triangle ruler.

If you have a project at hand and aren’t overly concerned about precise angles, I recommend getting some of the tape peeled back and then cut the washi as you go. Sometimes it was hard for me to get the backing off the tape. I had cut a whole bunch of pieces down into three inch strips for some envelopes, and it was a bit monotonous peeling back the tape on every strip.

3. Fabric washi is perfect for taping envelopes shut or for dressing up some Christmas packages.

Since we do a bit of traveling at Christmas, I don’t use too many bows. With kids, ribbons often get in the way. The fabric washi was perfect for me to dress up some brown paper packages.

If you end up using a tape wider than a half inch and decide to cut it right down the middle, be sure to label a rotary blade specifically for cutting washi. Sometimes cutting paper or tape can make a fabric blade dull in a hurry!

Or, if you are looking for some excellent (and way cute) fabric washi without investing the time into making any, I have found two smalls shops on Etsy that carry it. LemonyStitch often has an excellent variety of ginghams and plaids that are keeping up with the trends. SewSugarBeans has some overly adorable vintage fabric washi for sale. You should check out both of their cute shops.