batty for banners

Fads.  I hate them.  But some are too good to pass up!  Like the current bunting phase.  I am all about stringing cute little flags together :)  I made one for my kids room a few months ago, out of vintage fabric.  Super cute.  I'll show you someday... And then I made my Halloween pennant out of burlap.  I love it.  And I'm excited because I had the awesome foresight to make it double-sided!  So, in just a few days I'll be turning that sucker over and it'll be saying/meaning something different.  Brilliant!  For now, it says SPOOKY but soon it'll say THANKS.  Super cute.  I'll show you someday...

Anyway, I realize it's a wee bit way too late for anyone to be making a Halloween banner...  But, just think of all the festive possibilities!  So many holidays, so little time.  I am totally going to make one for Christmas/V-day.  Can't you just imagine the red beautiful burlap banner (hello alliteration!)?!  I'm trying not to hyperventilate, and to enjoy my holidays one at a time... but the ideas are a flowin' fo' sho!

I hurried to make another one for my mom's quilt group...  But I didn't hurry too much, because I remembered to take pictures this time!  So hopefully between my rambling directions and my crappy photos, you'll get the gist ;)

1.  Make a template: my triangles are 6 inches wide at the widest, and 8 inches tall at the tallest.  But you can make your triangles whatever size you want.  Use template and cut out as many flags as you need.  I used a fabric pen and a pair of scissors... but if you're a quilter, and/or you have access to a rotary cutter, mat and gridded ruler, that would definitely be the way to go!  Mine was at my mom's, so I did it the old-fashioned way.



2.  For this next step, you'll need freezer paper and double sided fusible interfacing.  If you're only going to have the pennant be one-sided, then you won't need the interfacing... Oh, and you'll need an iron.  Iron a slightly smaller triangle to one side of your flag.  Carefully iron your freezer paper to a piece of 8.5 x 11 print paper.  Make sure you don't iron the wrong side of the freezer paper!  Then, print out your word on the freezer paper side.  I used Times New Roman, font size 250 in Word.  Make sure to leave plenty of spacing between each letter.

3.  Using a craft razor blade, or in my case a utility knife, cut out your letters.  A cutting board might come in handy.  A Cricut would definitely come in handy.  Because doing it by hand is a pain in the butt (and hand)!  But definitely worth it :)  And this is why you want to have enough space around the letters.  You don't want the edges of your stencil to be too thin...

4.  Peel off the freezer paper from the print paper.  Line up your somewhat-sticky stencil on your flag and iron on.  Freezer paper usually has two good ironings in it.  If you iron it to print paper (step 2), then you've already used up one good use.  So, this isn't a stencil you can take on and off.  Position it correctly before ironing it on.  Eyeball it, use a ruler, etc.  Just make sure you're happy with where it is, or else you'll end up repeating steps 2 AND 3, cursing along the way.  Believe me.  Been there.  Done that.  Not recommended ;)

5.  Using regular old craft paint, start filling in your stencil directly onto the burlap.  Brush from the outside of the stencil to the inside of the stencil.  That'll help minimize any leakage around the edges.  Also, I put tinfoil behind my flag, just in case any of the paint soaked through the burlap.  If you ever plan on washing this (why???), then use paint that's safe to wash.  Although, I would NOT recommend washing burlap.  What a mess!

6.  After the paint is dry, simply peel off the freezer paper and gasp in amazement.  It's like magic!

If you plan on making it double-sided, then you'll need to prep your backside flags BEFORE you go any further than step 3.  You won't need to iron on interfacing, though.  Instead, peel off the paper from your front side flag and then create a little flag/interface sandwich.  Iron really well on both sides to make sure the interfacing sticks to both.  Then take turns painting each side, being careful that both words read from left to right.  When I made mine, I sewed the two sides together.  And I forgot about the word-flip issue until it was too late.  Unpicking burlap is not fun.  And I can only imagine how frustrating it would be after you've basically glued the two sides together with interfacing... so just double check before you make any move that'll be permanent.

Now all that's left is to sew all those little flaggies together!  I used double folded bias tape, but you could use ribbon, string, etc.  Make sure to leave enough on the ends for hanging purposes.  And you're done!  I'm sorry if I've made it sound more confusing than it really is...  But most of you are more crafty than I am, so I'm sure you'll do just fine :)

There you have it!  Now you'll be making up excuses to make banners for every season, holiday, month, day of the week, member of your family, and so on and so forth.  And I wouldn't blame you one bit.  We can be crazy together.  *B