Cute Seasonal Pennant Banner

Last fall, I was inspired by one of my crafty neighbors who created a really cute pennant banner in various Halloween colored fabrics to hang above her porch entryway.  It was cute because she didn’t use super busy prints, she just stuck with a few colors that went with her decorating scheme at Halloween.  I remember loving the idea – but I was 7 months pregnant at the time, and was still getting ready for baby-so I snapped a few pics, and put it on my to-do list for later.

The following summer, I was remembering this little project, and was on summer break and in need of a fun and easy project to work on during Ellie’s naptime.  So, I used the inspiration and created a 4^th of July themed banner to hang outside on my porch.  It was actually pretty easy once I had the template.  I didn’t even sew it, and per the advice of my neighbor, used fusible adhesive to bind the fabric and extra wide bias tape together.  A little ironing, and viola – I had a really cute banner to hang outside of my house.  And for those of you who didn’t know – I am ridiculously obsessed with decorating for the holidays.  I always do either a tree or something around my dining room mirror for all of the main holidays.  Its a little nuts, but I grew up with a mom who always decorated for the main holidays – and it made the year so much fun!

Materials: 

-6 to 8 varieties of your favorite seasonally colored fabric – approx. a ½ yd. of each

(choose a variety of textures and prints for added interest)

-cardboard to make a template (my pennant was about 5” wide by 11-12 inches tall)

-extra wide bias tape (choose a color that works with your fabric)

-bond adhesive (on the roll) to be used with an iron

-pinking shears (to keep the fabric from fraying)

-any other trinkets/buttons, etc. you want to add

Rough Directions:

-make a template from the cardboard

-trace 2 pennants from the same fabric (to go back to back), and create enough to make a banner.  I made about 5 double-sided pennants per fabric choice.

-cut out the pennants and piece together, pretty side out

-glue the pennants together, so you end up with approx. 30 double sided pieces.

-iron bonding tape to one side of each pennant, and then iron to the inside of the bias tape.

-turn the entire banner over, apply bonding adhesive to the opposite side of each pennant.

-fold bias tape over and them iron the second side.

TIP:  I felt like even though this was easy-it was A LOT of gluing and ironing.  It might just be easier to sew the pennants together, and them sew each to the bias tape.  Whatever works for you!  My sewing machine was packed away so I opted for ironing.

New Project:  here is my fabric inspiration for my own Halloween banner...although, I'll have to get to that later. :)