Craft Tutorial: Fabric Cootie Catcher Mobile and Garland

In elementary school, my friends and I spent hours playing with Cootie Catchers, aka Fortune Tellers. And I must say they were very accurate, predicting that I would marry Ricky Schroeder, have 10 kids and live in a shack with him.

Other than their powerful soothsaying abilities, I’ve always admired their sculptural quality from all angles. To enjoy them in all their glory, I made fabric cootie catchers to hang as a mobile or garland.

 

First I’ll review how to make the cootie catchers, then I’ll show you how to make the mobile and garland.

                

Materials

• Cotton fabric (dimensions to come)
• Fusible webbing such as Steam-A-Seam or Heat-n-Bond
• Rotary cutter/self-healing cutting mat, or scissors
• Ruler
• Fabric Stiffener (such as Aileen’s Stiffen Quick that comes in a spray bottle)
• Not pictured: Iron
• Optional: Sewing machine and contrasting thread, depending on what kind of fusible webbing you use (some don’t require stitching after fusing, some do), or if you’d like to add a decorative border.

First, practice making a cootie catcher with paper. Here’s a step-by-step tutorial.

How to Make a Fabric Cootie Catcher

1. Cut two pieces of fabric and one piece of fusible webbing into a square. In this case, I’ve made mine 8.5×8.5, which makes a cootie catcher about the size you’d make with a piece of notebook paper cut into a square.

2. Following the directions of your fusible webbing, fuse the two pieces of fabric, wrong sides together. It’s not required that you use two different fabrics…you can use the same fabric for both sides if you like.

 

3. If you’re using fusible webbing that requires stitching after you fuse, stitch along the edges with a decorative stitch or a simple stitch like a zig zag. Again, read the directions on your webbing to see what type it is. Or, you can just do it for fun. I used a satin stitch.

4. Now we’re going to start folding and pressing. First, fold the fabric into quarters and lightly press, giving you a folding guide. Open back up.

5. Fold all 4 corners so they meet in the middle, using the creases from step 4 as a guide. Press.

6. Turn it over

7. Take the corners and fold them in again and press. Now your piece of fabric is getting small, so be careful as you iron.

 

8. Now fold it in half and stick your fingers into the four flaps. Now you’ve formed your cootie catcher.

 

9. Press the folds on the bottom with the point of your iron. This gets a little awkward, and as you press each fold, sometimes the rest of the cootie catcher gets misshapen. Just reshape it with your fingers as you go.

10. Cover your workspace and spray fabric stiffener onto both sides of your cootie catcher. I like to start with the pointy side first. Use your hand underneath to keep the shape as you spray the pointy side.

 

Then, put it down to spray the bottom. Reshape it while it’s wet, and allow to dry with points down. After a few hours, if you feel like it should be stiffer, you can apply another coat. I like to let it dry overnight so that the result is a little bit papery.

Now that it’s dry, you can see it holds its shape! Yay!

  

To make the mobile, I used the one I made above (as mentioned, with 8.5×8.5-inch squares) plus a larger one and smaller one. The large cootie catcher used two 12×12 inch squares of fabric fused together, and the smallest cootie catcher used two 6×6 inch squares of fabric fused together.

I then used 3 feet of 1/2-inch ribbon to connect them. I cut a slit in the middle of the cootie catcher and threaded the middle one onto the center of the ribbon.

I tied knots on either side of the cootie catcher, making sure the knots are snug against it. I then tied a knot about 6 inches above and below the middle cootie catcher and thread on the large and small cootie catcher, making sure they’re all facing the same way. Tie knots snugly on the other side.

Trim the ends of the ribbon and apply anti-fraying glue. Put a dab on all of the slits you cut as well. Tie a knot at the top and hang!

I also made a garland of cootie catchers in the same manner, but with all 6×6 inch squares and the same fabric on both sides.

On some of them I used a zigzag stitch on the edges but some I didn’t stitch at all. And I used thinner ribbon and hung them asymmetrically…I love how you can enjoy the shape of the cootie catchers at all different angles.

As you can see, there are lots of possibilities in terms of size and color combinations, as well as how you hang it! Thanks for reading…as always, please let me know if this inspires you to make something similar!

Linking up here.

PS Cootie catchers make great puppets. At least my girls think so.

They have affectionately named this one “Purple”.

Tagged as: crafts, tutorials