Home a la mode: How-To: Banner Tutorial

Now, if you browsed our website, you know that we carry a variety of banners for your decorating needs.

But, sometimes you are needing one for a holiday or event that we don't have already made for you. As someone who likes to decorate for every holiday, I needed to come up with a tutorial so that I could make myself a banner to match every season.

The nice side of me decided to share with you my method for making banner :)

Start by gathering all your materials. I used the following:

Print out the template for either the "Happy Spring" or "Hoppy Easter"
Figure out the layout of colors and order that you want your letters to appear.
Add Pellon Wonder Under to the wrong side of the fabric you want to use of the letters.
Using a light board, trace the letters using the Sewline Fabric Mechanical Pencil. If haven't ever used this pencil, you are missing out. This is the first fabric pencil that I have ever used that writes just like a regular pencil on paper - and it's just as easy to erase!
After you trace all letters, cut them out and peel that backing paper off.
Now, you will want to apply your Pellon 808 Craft Fuse to your main fabric. I prefer to apply the Craft Fuse first and then cut out the squares to the size you want.
Cut out your squares (mine were 4"x6"). Make sure your fabric is fully adhered to the Craft Fuse.
Iron on your letters to each square, making sure to line up the letters with each other. As you can see, I kept the letters towards to the bottom of the square - you will want to do this so you have plenty of room to add the ric rac to the top.
Now comes the fun part :) You need to stitch around the letters so that they will stay in place. If you don't plan on re-using and/or storing this banner, you can skip this step. I used a tight zig-zag stitch for an embroidered look, but a blanket stitch works great for this as well. I used white thread for mine so the letters stand out against the main fabric.
Once all the letters are stitched on, you will want to take your pinking shears or a pinking/wave rotary cutter and just trim the edges of the squares. You can leave the top edge alone since it will be covered with the ric rac. As you can see below, I just trimmed off a slight edge - this will keep the fabric from fraying.
Now, for the final step. It's time to put it all together. I left a tail about 8" long before starting to attach the rectangles. You will just sew each one, leaving a small space between them so the drape better.
As you can see, the edges of the ric rac will fray a little bit. I use a lighter to melt the edges just enough to seal the ends.