Faux Quilting- With Styrofoam!

by Susan Myers on January 11, 2013

in home decor

Create a unique quilted look that involves absolutely no sewing at all! This Faux Quilted Bulletin Board is made with foam and fabric scraps and is a beautiful focal piece for your room! My tutorial even includes a free pattern for you to download!

The husband works for a company that gets large parts in daily and they are packaged with styrofoam around them for protection. So, of course I confiscated some. I am a huge fan of creating crafts from recycled materials. I decided to create a bulletin board that gives the look of quilting, but is actually incredibly easy to do. It is a colorful addition to my sewing room! Want to know how to make your own?

For this project I used:

One sheet of styrofoam packing material (36″ x 12″ x 1/2″) If you do not have access to packing material, your local craft store sells it in similar size sheets.
Assorted fabrics, cut in strips for easy handling
Ruler
Sharpie Pen
Craft Knife
Butter knife or credit card for pushing fabric into the styrofoam
Sheet of foam board
Thumb tacks

I enlarged the pattern to 12″ square, so I was able to make three repeats of it across the width of the styrofoam sheet.

Use a pencil and ruler to mark it out, and then use a sharpie pen to darken the lines.

Once the pattern is complete, choose a variety of fabrics to use. My original plan was to go with a wintery look, but after searching through my fabric stash, I was drawn to the warm summery colors.

Choose about 8 different coordinating fabrics, and then cut them in 2- 1/2″ wide strips for easier handling.

Choose a place to begin and cut a piece of fabric big enough to overlap all four sides of the area by about 1/2″.

Use the craft knife to cut into the styrofoam along the line. Be careful not to cut entirely through the styrofoam sheet. You want to go about half way through.

Use a butter knife or credit card to push the edges of the fabric down into the styrofoam along the cut lines.

Choose your fabrics as you go and repeat the above steps, pushing the extra fabric into the cracks.

On the edges, simply overlap the fabric over the edge and push into the crevices made by your craft knife.

Because the sheet of styrofoam has been compromised, it is a bit weak. To ensure that it does not break, cut a piece of foam board big enough to glue to the back of the styrofoam using low temp hot glue.