Fabric Flag Banner Tutorial

Have I mentioned how much I love the morning light that comes in my dining room window? But don't actually look at the dirty yucky filthy dining room window. That's on my to-do list.

The Man and I were heading out to run some errands this morning when I got stopped by this glorious morning sunshine pouring in the window. I had to grab my camera and take a few pics. He was not amused and promptly left me behind.

[It's not quite as dramatic as I'm making it sound. We were driving separately anyway. He hates to shop with me. And I'm not really fond of shopping with him, either. Sissy is much more fun to shop with. She spends money.]

Do you see my grass growing on the windowsill? I think it might be perfect by Easter. I don't need Plan B after all. That's a good thing since I never had a Plan B.
I'm going to spread some foil wrapped chocolate eggs in the grass to give it a bit of color. And maybe a bunny or bird, too.
After braving the crowds out shopping, I needed to sit and do something fun. I decided to make one of those fabric flag banners I've been seeing all over blogland. People have been using them for birthdays, weddings, and other special days. I'm going to use mine on Easter. We're supposed to have fabulously warm weather so we'll be able to eat outside. I plan on hanging the banner on the porch.
I picked five fabrics I liked and used a half yard of each. I trimmed off the selvage ends and folded the material in half (right sides together) lengthwise. I started by drawing my flags on the wrong side of the fabric, top to bottom. Use the whole width. I made six inch tops, which means the points on the bottom are three inches from the sides (measuring down from the center of the top). If you use a cutting mat and ruler this is a very simple process. I just kept zigzagging my points so the side of one flag was the side of another flag, ie. they share a side. If you click on the picture, you'll get a bigger pic and can see this more clearly.
After I drew out all the flags (I got 13 out of each half yard of material), I cut on the lines with my pinking shears. I didn't want to sew the sides up and figured the zigzag edge might help cut down on fraying.
Cut out your flags and then you're ready to fuse the bottom.
I used heat-n-bond to fuse the bottoms together. I wanted the flags to have a front and back but didn't want to sew the sides together. Too much time. I've got things to do, people, and can't waste time sewing a million sides.

But I don't want them flapping in the wind either. So I used the heat-n-bond. Follow the manufacturer's instructions for applying that stuff.

And I do mean, FOLLOW the instructions. See the brown gunk to the left of the flag point, on the edge of the pic? That's heat-n-bond from a previous project that I applied wrong since I didn't read the instructions carefully and ironed it to my iron and ironing board cover.

I wanted a new cover anyway. The Man bought this ironing board and he picked out a manly cover, not a girly one. Yuck.

So, bottom line, FOLLOW the instructions carefully and you'll do just fine.
I laid them all out on my sewing table and played around with the placement. Once I got the colors lined up the way I wanted them, I started sewing.
You can sew them all together, one after another. I just kept lining them up, one at at time. There was a little space between them but the machine just keeps stitching and it gives a nice little space without any effort on my part at all.
They'll start stacking up behind your machine. Just push them out of the way and keep stitching.
I'm going to attach a piece of ribbon to each end of the banner so I can hang it up.
Here they all are, sewn together and folded nicely waiting to be hung up tomorrow.