Thursday, July 19, 2012

No-Sew Pennant Banner

I've been wanting to make one of these for a really long time, but I haven't been able to get up the gumption to sew a million little triangle pennants.  The other night (at about 3am) I was laying awake and couldn't go back to sleep because this idea was churning in my head.  It's probably not the first time someone has made these this way, but for some reason this is the first time I had thought of it. I kept going through the motions in my head for about an hour--I couldn't fall asleep.  In fact, I seriously considered getting up, and going into my craft room to work on this.  The only thing that stopped me was the thought that it could possibly wake up my sleeping baby...which didn't sound pleasant.  Eventually I drifted back off, but this afternoon while Chloe was napping, I got everything out and whipped these up:
For one of my baby shower gifts, a friend gave me a whole bunch of squares of fabric all cut out with pinking shears.  I have had them sitting in my fabric box for almost a year now trying to decide what to do with them.  If I was ambitious enough, I'd make an adorable quilt, but saying as how my sewing skills are fairly limited, I figured this was a good way to put the adorable vintage fabric to use.

So here's what I did:

1) You will need a glue gun, strong string (yarn would work too), scissors, and your fabric squares.
 2) Arrange your squares in the order that you like them.  
 3) Double-layer your string if it's thin like mine.  Tie a loop at one end (this is easy if you double-layer it, because you can just tie the loop where the string doubles back on itself).  You wouldn't have to do the loop at all, but I wanted an easy way to hang my banner when I was done.  I also decided to do my banner in groups of six or seven so I could have the option of decorating with them in multiple locations if I wanted to.  You'll see what I mean further down.  You could do them all in one long banner if you wanted to, though.

4) Place your string on the fabric (lay the piece upside down so when you fold it over, the right side is showing.)  
Take your glue gun and run a strip of glue right along the string.  Quickly fold your fabric over and press right on the glued area so it sticks nice and tight.  Make sure there aren't any weird ripples.  You have to be kind of quick, because hot glue dries seriously fast. 
 5) Take your glue gun and put a dab at the bottom point of each square to help hold it down.
 6) Keep going along, gluing and folding as you go.  Only do one square at a time--like I said, the hot glue dries FAST.
7) Once you've glued them all down, cut the string, leaving a little bit at the opposite end for another loop.  Tie your loop so you have one on each end of the banner.  Easy-peasy Mac 'n Cheesy.  You are done.  Now hang it somewhere cute. :)
As I mentioned up above,  I decided to do multiple banners so I could hang them in more than one place if I chose, or combine them if I chose.  Here you can see two of them over the mantle.
 Here they are all together.  I did the same pattern for each one (green, pink, yellow, etc) so that if I choose to do them side by side, they will coordinate.
 The best part about this banner?  It's reusable, and a cinch to store!  Look how nicely they fold into stacks.  These would fit in a decoration box or drawer somewhere so nicely.
 Simple as that.  
 You could do these in all sorts of colors for different occasions.  This one is going to be used for my daughter's 1st birthday party in a few months, but will look great for many other occasions after that too.  You could do more masculine fabrics for guys, or primary colors for a more unisex banner that would work for any birthday or holiday.  Also, think themes like Fourth of July, Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day....!!!  The possibilities are endless with this kind of thing.  

No sewing required?  Yes please.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Very cute! Also I am jealous of your fireplace :)