Friday, January 11, 2013


Valentine’s Day
Pendant Banner

Last year every time I turned around there were pendant banners hanging from everywhere.  I was ravenous with desire to have one.  So, I closed my eyes and took a leap and made it up as I went along...I think it turned out pretty ok...

I admit it, I love it!  This was such a fun, quick, easy project and I bought enough materials to make 6, so a lot of my friends ended up with one.  Just spreading the love on “love day”.

Materials:
~1 piece card stock
~1/4 yard of 3 corresponding fabrics for fronts
~3/4 yard fabric for backing
~1/4 yard solid fabric for ties
~3/4 yard batting
~Pinking sheers
~Thread
~Adhesive alphabet stencil OR freezer paper and die cut machine (like a Cricut)
~Fabric paint
~Sponge brush
~Jewels (optional)

Away we go...
First make your triangle patter piece.  Don’t try to make it perfect, if it’s a little lopsided it makes it more charming.  If you have a die cut machine you can use that, otherwise make your own.  My measurements were ....

Now that you have a pattern we are ready to cut.  Now, let me make note, I bought 3 fat quarters for the front fabric and was able to cut 6 triangles from each fat quarter.  So, a little bit of fabric goes a long way on this project.  The quickest way to cut is to make the sandwich of fabric, pin it, cut it and then it’s ready to sew.  

Start by putting your back fabric down right side down. 

Now lay your batting on top

and then finish with the front fabric on top right side up. 


Lay your triangle on top and pin.  

Cut around it using pinking sheers.
While keeping the pieces together unpin the triangle and put the pin back in to keep it all together.  Cut two triangles from each front fabric so you end up with 6 total triangles.

Now let’s put them together.  Zig zag stitch all the way around each triangle on a 1” seam allowance.  

It’s time to stencil the letters on.  It is important that you use a stencil that adheres to your fabric, otherwise your paint will bleed and it won’t look as nice.  I’ve made this banner twice and the first time I bought an alphabet stencil that was self adhesive, like a sticker.  That’s the easy way.  

The cheaper way (which is how I made my second round) was to cut my stencil out of freezer paper using my Cricut machine.  

Freezer paper is fun because you can iron it onto fabric and it sticks tight but pulls off clean when you’re done.  

Which ever way you do it put your stencil on your triangles (make sure you like the order of the fabric before you paint) and grab your fabric paint.  

I do recommend using actual fabric paint, it’s less head ache and looks nice.  My little bottle was less than $2 at Jo Ann.  Paint your letters on and let it dry.

While you’re waiting for the paint to dry make the strips that will tie the banner together.  
Cut 10 strips 1”x 6”(short)
Cut 2 strips 1”x 10”(medium)
Cut 2 strips 1”x 24”(long)

Pull your stencils off your dried triangles.

Grab your 10 strips of 1”x 6” strips (from here out I will call these the short strips), we will sew all of these first.

The best way to visualize this is to lay out each letter of your banner in the order it will hang.  The short strips will be sewn to the left side of the “B”, the right side of the “B”, the left side of the “e”, the right side of the “M”,  the left side of the “i”, the right side of the “i”, the left side of the “n”, the right side of the “n”, the left side of the “e” and the right side of the “e”.  Sew them onto the back of the triangle using a zig zag stitch following the line you have already created when you sewed the triangles together.

Next sew the medium strips to the right side of the first “e” and the left side of the “M”.  This longer strip will give a bigger space to make the two words distinct.

Now use fabric glue or super glue to accent your letters with your jewels.  So cute!!!

Here’s the last step, tying the whole thing together.  Simply knot each word together, adjusting spacing between each letter.  Make sure to use the extra space between "Be" and "Mine".


  Trimmed each strip at an angle to give a bow feel.

Take your two long strips and make a big loop on one end and knot it, this is for hanging.  Then tie the long strips to the left side of the “B” and the right side of the “e”,


 and viola.....

Happy
Valentine’s Day

***Don't have the time to make your own banner?  Click here to visit us at our Etsy store and buy one already made!
<3, Sharla

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