Thursday, March 29, 2012

Banners or Bunting?

I'm not really sure what these pendant-thingies are called, so we'll call it a banner.  Anyway.  I had a bunch of brightly colored felt hanging around from some flowers I neglected to make and I decided to make a "Welcome Spring" banner.  This is another very easy craft that anyone can do if you have a bunch of felt, a rotary cutter, some double-fold bias tape and can sew in a straight line.  It's also an honest-to-goodness CHEAP craft.  You could do this one for about $6 or less.  Here's what you do:
~~Cut your triangles out.  Mine are 5" wide at the top, 6" long at the point.  (I wanted a banner that was big enough to go over my ugly blinds.  Seriously.  Why hasn't somebody come  up with a more attractive solution to sliding-glass-door covering?)  Keep in mind that bias tape usually comes in 3 yard lengths so if you want a banner that is longer, you'll have to piece together a second length of bias tape.
~~You can either purchase sticky-back felt letters or make your own.  I couldn't find 2" ones, so I made my own.  To do that go on the computer, find a font you like, type out all the letters you want and size them to whatever makes sense and print them out and use them as stencils on the back of a sheet of sticky-back felt (making sure to trace them backwards so the fuzzy side is right-side up).  It's not as terrible as it sounds.
~~Even though the letters are on sticky-back felt, you absolutely need to use fabric adhesive as well.
~~After the glue has dried, sew the pendants into the fold of the bias tape with a straight stitch.  You could also embellish with rick-rack, ribbon, etc.  The nice thing about the bias tape is that it is automatically folded under and finished on both sides.
I liked this so much, I made a Happy Birthday banner too!  The possibilities are endless and these are sturdy and store nice and flat.  Banners for every holiday!

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