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Fan Card Tutorial Part 1

Finally, I've had time to work on a tutorial for the Mother's Day fan card.
fan card
In this part, you will put together the fan mechanism.
Download (PDF) and cut out the 7 fan pieces.
fan card
---Fasten pieces together---
Separate the pieces by hole configuration, and flip wrong side down if your card has a right and wrong side.
fan card
Stack the pieces in the following order: the piece with two upper holes, the three pieces with upper holes on the left, then the three pieces with upper holes on the right.
Push a brad paper fastener through the bottom hole from the front side. Open the legs of the fastener.
---Sew lower holes---
Thread a large needle with heavy thread.
Leave a long tail of thread at the beginning.
With the brad fastener at the bottom and the fan pieces stacked on top of each other, note the bottom holes. One is to the right, and one to the left. I am going to call them "east" and "west" (the brad is "south").
With the brad fastening at the bottom, fan pieces out.
fan card
Start threading on piece #4, which is the bottom right-hand piece. (Marked with blue arrow pointing down.)
Sew down through the east hole, pull the needle out from under the fan blade toward the west. Pull thread straight up, then sew back down through the same hole. This forms a little loop through the hole and around the side of the fan blade.
Your needle is now underneath piece #4. Bring it up through the west hole of piece #4.
Fan out piece #3 so you can see the holes. Sew down into the east hole and up through the west hole.
Repeat for remaining pieces, working from right to left.
When you get to the last piece, #7, you will make another loop like you did at the beginning. Sew up through the west hole, put the needle under the piece and sew up again. (Marked with blue arrow pointing up).
Leave a long tail of thread at the end.
---Sew the top holes---
Now sew the top holes starting with piece #4.
fan card
Just like first bottom hole, start by going down through the hole, pull the thread out from under, and push the needle down from the top again, forming a loop.
Pull thread over to piece #3 and do the same thing, down--around--down. Do the same with piece #2.
At the center piece, #1, pull the thread all the way across first, then sew down through the left-hand hole. Pull the thread across the front (the right side--that is now face down) of piece #1, then up through the right-hand hole.
Pull the across the back of #1 again toward piece #5.
Sew up through the hole in piece #5, around the edge of the card to the right and then up again.
Continue sewing up-up, making loops around the holes of pieces #6 and #7.
Fan the card out and adjust the blades so they are evenly spaced. Adjust top threads so they are even and taut when the fan is completely spread out.
Now close the fan and adjust the bottom threads.
Open and close the fan, adjusting the threads, until it "works" in both the open and closed position. Tape down the thread ends to the back of the card using re-positionable tape (I use painter's tape). Notice that when you open the fan the bottom threads are very loose. That's the way it's supposed to be!
Back side of the fan, closed, with the threads taped down. (The brad is going the wrong way. Oops, this is before I took it out and fixed it.)
fan card
Front side ("right" side) of the fan.
fan card
Back side of the fan, open. Again, the brad should be the other way with the prongs on this side and the head on the other side.
fan card
--Attach flowers--
Hurray!! The hard part is done. Now it's time to decorate the fan.
The flowers I used can be downloaded from this post.
fan card
Glue flowers to fan blades. Be careful to glue the flower petals securely at the edges of the fan pieces. Check for loose petals catching on adjacent fan blades as you open and close the fan. Since the bottom threads are hidden in the finished card, you don't need to glue any flowers lower down than those threads.
fan card
End of Part 1!