Dinosaur Birthday Part I

With Garrett's second birthday coming up I wanted to take advantage of my new found creativity and make some of the decorations myself.

First up ...

Materials:

3 separate 1/4 yards of fabric for pennants

(I got 1/2 yards but thats because I like scraps)

1/4 yard fabric for letters

(again I got extra)

3 yards double folded extra-wide  biased tape in coordinating color

(this is enough for 9 pennants max)

Fusible webbing

Batting (optional)

To get started decide how large you want your banners to be. Make sure to add 1/4" all around your pattern for seam allowance. Cut your pattern out on cardboard or cardstock and cut out fabric pennants with your rotary cutter.



For the letters I used fusible webbing. First I traced out the letters on the webbing in reverse so when sewn onto the pennant they would be facing the right way. Rough cut around them.

Place on your fabric of choice for the letters and iron on. One of the benefits of using fusible webbing is that when you cut the letters out the edges will be sealed to help prevent fraying. Another benefit is that when you iron them onto your pennants you don't neccessarily have to sew around them since the banner will not be played with or put through the wash.





I chose to sew my letters on using a zig zag stitch. I set my sewing machine to a stitch length of 1.0 and width of 3.5. I also chose to use batting in my pennants to give them more structure since I plan to hang this over Garretts crib after the party. I pinned the batting on the wrong side of the front pennant piece and then sewed on my letter to keep it in place. (Side Note: You do not need this many pins ... I got a little crazy!)

After all of your letters are sewn on. Its time to finish your pennants. Attach front and back pieces right sides together and stich around the sides using a 1/4 inch seam allowance. Be sure to leave the top open so you can turn them right side out. Carfully poke out the bottom to a point and iron all your pieces flat. Using your extra wide double fold biased tape lay the pennants inside one at a time starting with your end letter and pin them in place. Leave 12 inches at the end. Once all the pennants are pinned in place sew along the inside edge of biased tape from one end to the other.  There you have it! A personalized pennant banner.