Felt Happy Birthday Banner Tutorial

On to the tute.

I make my flags 10″ high by 6″ across at the top. To create the flags, I line the felt (cut to 10″ high) up on my cutting mat. Using my ruler, I line up the corner, with the mark 3″ over- as shown in the picture- and cut along that line. I then line up the ruler with the point I just cut, and swing it over 6″ from the original corner. Gosh I hope that makes any sense at all. Another option is to make a template using a piece of paper, cut it 10″ high by 6″ wide. Fold in half and cut from the two free corners on the bottom, up to the folded side on top. Cut out your flags. You will need 13 various colored flags. I double the felt on mine, so I actually cut out 26 flags for each banner. I like the body the extra fabric gives. Since I make these to sell, I usually just use white or cream for the back- since I buy my felt off the bolt at Joann’s I can use a coupon for one cut, and so I get one big cut of either of those colors.

Take two flags (if you’re doubling up) and sew them together. I like to use a zigzag stitch, just for fun. Feel free to do what you want. If you want to add trim to your flags, like ric rac or pom pom trim, this is the place to do it. The felt will most likely stretch in some places. Just try to keep the flags as even and flat as you can while sewing, then go back and trim up any light felt you can see peeking out behind your colored felt. {as shown in this picture}

Now it’s time to cut out your letters. type out the letters in your favorite font. {I made my templates years ago and I have no idea what fonts I used- I know I used a Cricut though, so I’m not going to provide templates, since I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t like that. – Sorry!} kevinandamanda.com have great fonts- I think smiley monster would look so great on a happy birthday banner. Print out the letters the size you want them (remember they will need to fit on your flags!). I would print out just the outline, to save ink- but I’m cheap that way. Then, take your paper and pin, pin, pin it to the felt you are using for the letters (in my case, cream).