DIY: felt birthday banner {no sew}

by Bar

DIY felt birthday banner - no sew - colorful wall hanging for parties | @smallforbig.com

Last weekend I had several hours by myself, if you can imagine. My husband had the girls, and my son played outside with his friends from the neighborhood for hours. It was my chance to make something! I could create all the mess I wanted, with no one telling me they were hungry or asking me to find their shoes. A break from the hum drum (something we all need from time to time). So I made this banner…and I love it because it’s happy, colorful, and will last forever!  Here is what you’ll need to make one, too:

Supplies:

~ Felt pieces (mine are 9 x 12 from Michael’s, but you can also buy them on Etsy)

~ Stitch Witchery

~ A good iron with steam setting + a piece of cotton fabric, like a handkerchief

~ A ruler + pencil to mark sides for trimming

~ Letter stencils found here (5 downloads): HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

~ A pair of good fabric scissors

~ White Galaxy Marker for tracing stencils

~ Wooden dowel (found at Michael’s or any hardware store) 3/8” diameter cut to 25” length

~ Two hours completely to yourself! ( If only we could buy this on the internet, too.)

DIY felt birthday banner (no sew) | smallforbig.com

Follow these steps to make your banner:

1. Choose nine felt pieces (9″ x 12″) and arrange them into whatever color combo you like.

2. Open the package of stitch witchery and take off the first few layers of plastic wrap.

3. Starting with your top row and using your iron on a steam setting, place the stitch witchery in between the felt pieces, creating about a 5/8” seam. I overlapped the side pieces over the middle piece. Later, we will trim the sides so that all the patches are of equal width.

4. It is very important to use a cloth over the felt or else your iron will melt the felt. Test the bond before moving on, making sure the stitch witchery has melted and the felt is glued together.

5. After you have bonded the three rows together, it’s time to trim. Measure your middle patches and then use your ruler to draw a line with pencil on the outer patches so that they are all of equal width. My banner, after being trimmed, measured about 22” wide by 32” tall (each patch about 7 1/2″ wide).

6. Turn the top over about 1 ½” and use the iron (with the cloth) to iron the hem flat. Next, use the stitch witchery to close the bottom of the hem but make sure to leave a space to put the rod through. I actually sewed mine out of habit. I completely forgot I was making this a no-sew tutorial. Sorry! But it will totally work using the stitch witchery, I promise!

7. Print and cut out your paper stencils on just regular printer paper. Lay them out and space them evenly.

8. Trace the stencils lightly with your white pen. If you don’t want to purchase a white pen, you can use any pen. Just make sure you make the lines very light.

9. Cut out your letters. I used my rotary cutter and board to cut all the straight vertical lines, and then used my scissors to finish. Just make sure you have very good, sharp fabric scissors. It will make cutting much easier! If you don’t have them, now would be a good time to purchase them. They are good to have for life. (Make sure you never let the kids use them for paper!)

10. Slide the wooden dowel through the top, tie on your string hanger, and you are done!

DIY felt birthday banner (no sew) | smallforbig.com

This banner can be made with other quotes, too. I used the font Papercute if you want to make your own stencils.

Happy Monday!

xo Bar

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Timothy October 21, 2013 at 11:51 pm

very interesting design. It feels warm and loving.

Reply

2 Jennifer November 8, 2013 at 9:11 am

Great project. I’m going to do this. Do you have more stencils lettering… in case I wanted to have our banner say something else? Like Happy New Year or When in Doubt, Smile! Thanks. I love your blog.

Reply

3 Bar November 12, 2013 at 2:40 pm

hi jennifer, i don’t have more lettering but i did add a link to the font at the bottom of the post. you would have to download it, then use it in a simple program like word, enlarging the letters enough so that they can be seen from far. let me know if you have any other questions, and i’d love to see what you come up with! xo bar

Reply

Cancel reply

Leave a Comment

{ 4 trackbacks }

Previous post:

Next post:

Google+ Tag Code: