Let's Hear it for the Girls...

 Here they are- the Selvage Queens! These fun little "paper dolls" began life simply as cardstock and selvage strips before they became royalty. I made some a few years back and sent them in place of a greeting card to several quilting friends who were facing some struggles. I was surprised and pleased to hear that they all had the "girls" hanging somewhere in their sewing rooms and got a little lift when they would glance at them. Since selvages are a bottomless supply, I decided to make more of these just because they are fun. If you plan it right, they will fit in a #10 envelope to mail easily. I'll include some how-to's with the photos that follow so you can make some Queens of your own to share.

Mine start with plain cardstock tags available at any craft supply store. You might also re-purpose a manila file folder. The cardstock weight is the important part because you'll sew through it. I put the punched hole at the bottom, out of sight. That's so I can pierce the crown with a smaller hole and add yarn or fibers for hanging when the Selvage Queen is completed.

I'm no great artist, but I can sketch a basic head shape and add a crown. I have two or three head templates  with different hairstyles I keep to trace when I'm making one of these.  I trace one onto the tag and everything below the neck is stitched. Then it's a matter of sewing and overlapping selvages, starting at the bottom and working up to the neckline, which I shape a little with scissors. They don't look like much at this stage, but they shape up quickly in the following steps. In addition to selvage pieces, you might sew in some ribbon, lace or trim. 

They look much better once the selvages are trimmed even with the tag and the head shape is trimmed. Then they are ready to color and sketch in features which really gives them personality.

To finish, I use colored pencils to tint the faces, art markers for the hair and crown. And the features are drawn with a fine-point permanent pen. The demure closed eyes are much easier to draw than open eyes, so maybe start with those. The final touch is some Elmer's Glue on the crown covered with a dusting of glitter because... Queens! If you don't like the look of the stitching on the back, use a glue stick to coat the back and press each Queen onto a piece of book page, as seen in the photo above. You can then trim the whole thing and the back will look neat and finished. Try some of these yourself. I just noticed that they would also be cute for Christmas if I turned them into Selvage Angels by adding some lace wings stabilized with a product like Stiffy Stuff. I think I'll have to try that! Christmas is coming!