I prefer my holiday decorations to be BIG and IMPACTFUL, yet store easily. For the last few years, I have been obsessed with banners. I have large windows in my kitchen and family room and the colors splayed across these look amazing.
It is more fun and economical to craft with friends, so I grabbed 6 of my most most naive and vulnerable friends and forced them to come along with this experiment with me.
I had to to a little mental math and I wanted each fabric piece to be about 6 inches by 10 inches. I figured that each participant needed a 1/2 yard of fabric. Since there were seven of us, I bought 1/2 yard of seven different fabrics. For a single banner, a 6-inch strip of fabric will get you 4 swatches.
At the craft store run, I also scored braided hemp, 4 spools of ribbon, heavy-duty interfacing, and white felt.
Before the girls gathered, I cut all the fabric to my previously decided 6 by 10 inch. I eyeballed the length so there would be slight variation in the length. In the end I decided to take an inverted triangle out of the bottom of each rectangle. I stacked 4 or 5 of my pieces on top of each other, folded them down the middle, and lined the folded edge up on the 60 degree cutting line on my ruler.
I created my words in photoshop, so that the letters would be touching each other. I printed them backwards, traced them onto the non-adhesive side of the interfacing, and ironed it to the felt. This was probably the most tedious part of the project, but the girls and I used this time to catch up with each other.
I also ironed a strip of the interfacing across the top of each fabric rectangle to give it a little stiffness as it hung.
I cut 2 small slits in the top of each banner and threaded the hemp through. I simply hung the words by threading the hemp through some of the closed loops. I tied 18 inch ribbon pieces between the banners too.
One friend had the fabulous idea to gather fabric pieces for some of the other holidays. The red polka dots and gray corduroy could be used for the Fourth of July or Memorial Day. I suggested some pieces could be cut from old jeans.
