I decided last minute to participate in a service auction and needed something to donate, so I quickly made another Happy Birthday Banner. I figured I might as well snap a few pictures along the way and write up a tutorial.
I used flannel fabric in two coordinating colors. The squares are each 5 inches tall x 4.5 inches wide. The letters stand about 3 inches tall. I just found an alphabet template online and printed it off on the computer. I mostly chose those dimensions because that's how much yellow fabric I had. There's no reason you couldn't scale things bigger, though I wouldn't probably go any smaller.
After you've cut out your letters, sew them to the front of the opposite color square. I tried to sew about 1/8 of an inch away from the edge using a contrasting colored thread.
Next sew a letter square to a backing square, right sides together, using a quarter inch seam. Leave the entire top open. Clip the corners, and turn the whole thing right side out. Use a pin or stitch ripper to make sure your corners are nice and square.
Top stitch around the three sides to help everything lay flat and add a little extra interest.
I used store bought, pre-folded bias tape to string all the flags together, mostly because I was in a hurry and had it on hand. While it was certainly convenient, I doubt I would use it again for this purpose. I don't think it looks as nice as matching fabric that I cut and folded myself. The tape I had was about 72 inches long. I spaced my flags out evenly, pinned them, and sewed along edge closest to the flags. If I were making my own*, I'd consider making a bit longer.
*while I'm not going to do a tutorial on how to make bias tape, there are lots of good ones online. Just Google bias tape or quilt binding.
And voila!
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