Making a Banner

Decorative Fabric Banners

This is a nice and colorful way to fill in all the empty spaces of a room that need "something" while you use up all the remnants of fabrics that are almost too small to do anything with.

College dorms, first apartments, and bedrooms all make ideal subjects for this easy-to-make crafty treatment.

Approximate Time: 3 or more hours

Supplies:

• variety of fabrics
• lightweight cardboard pattern
• wide bias tape
• needle and thread or sewing machine
• scissors
• pen or chalk for marking stitching lines
• any other bits and pieces of decorations you'd like to use
• screws or nails for securing ends of bias tape to the wall or ceiling

Instructions:

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1. Select your fabric based on the colors and prints you like best. Decide on one or more shapes to make your banners and get started. Decide on the shapes you'd like to use and make a pattern using an empty cereal box. If you want more than one shape, be sure to make patterns for all so that they end up being fairly close to the same size.

2. Cut 2 pieces of the same or contrasting fabrics and sew them front sides together. You'll probably want to mark a seam line, then pin into place to make sewing faster and easier. Machine or handstitch. They're easy enough to sew by hand and watch TV at the same time.
3. Leave the top of the banner open. Turn the banner to the right side, and press flat to sharpen edges.
4. Use wide bias tape to string them together and sew the top sides of each banner into the fold of the tape. Space them so that they are either touching side-by-side or with the same distance between each banner.
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5. Sew the bias tape all the way from one end to the other keeping the seam straight and making sure to capture the tops of every banner in the fold. This is made much easier if you pin everything in place prior to beginning to stitch.
6. Tie the ends of the bias tape to a screw or nail in the wall or ceiling and you have instant room decor for anywhere you choose to put it.


Source: My great-granddaughter, Bianca, who made all the banners in the pictures. She is a grad student at Carnegie-Mellon in Pittsburgh and will have her Master's in Art Management in May of this year. It's been a long hard 6 years, but she's having the time of her life right now with a first apartment. :-)

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By Julia from Boca Raton, FL

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Tip: Making a Banner

Tips for making a banner for a birthday, holiday, or any celebration. Post your own ideas here.

Use A Sheet

By EGRIBBLE

Mother's Day Banner On Freezer Paper

By martha pitts

Dollar Store Mother's Day Banner

• construction paper
• tissue paper in sheets or small to medium artificial flowers
• glue or glue gun with sticks
• hole punch and reinforcements for looseleaf paper
• flat back jewels or round stickers (like happy faces)

In the margins of each sheet, punch a hole about 1/2 to 1 inch from both top and bottom of each sheet, keeping the holes on each sheet even with the following ones. This is best done by measuring and marking a dot with a pencil on each one, then punching at the dots. Don't forget this is done on the "long" sides of each sheet "only". Apply reinforcements to each hole, "front and back", to keep the holes from ripping when the banner hangs. Using the tissue, cut 4-6 inch squares and grasp the center of each square, gathering it tightly. Glue the resulting bunches along your pencil lines, forming a floral letter on each sheet.

I am more in favor of using the artificial flowers as follows: remove stem and center of flowers, separating into petals. Glue petals separately along the lines of the letters, filling any center holes with a sticker, jewel, or other round decoration (sequins, buttons, etc.) Do this until you have each letter done. Arrange in order needed. Using some colorful yarn, string, etc. also available at dollar stores, tie each letter to the next one with a length of yarn, (not too long, experiment!) through top holes and bottom holes, leaving a little space between letter. On each end, add a hanging loop at top or bottom that you can hang over large map pins or stick tacks through to hang the banner. Good luck, if you use this, post a picture so we can all see it.

By Mary Lou

Question: Making a Hollywood Hills Banner?

Here is what I would like a banner printed on decent paper that says: HOLLYWOODS with the Hollywood Hills background. Black and White print. Notice the 'S' on Hollywood. You can easily create your own Hollywood Hills Banner by googling 'make your own Hollywood hills banner online'. I have done so already. My problem is that I can't get enough resolution to enlarge the picture to 12 inches high and 6 feet long. I'd like the banner printed on decent paper to decoupage onto a board. Thanks so much for any info.

Christine from Dover, DE

Answers

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