Patriotic Flag Banner Tutorial

I wanted to share this idea that I put together the other day.....This would be a very fast project that you could still do for this weekend!

I happen to have an old piece of clothing made out of the red ticking, so I deconstructed my garment, and I had some chunks of fabric to work with.  I was going to use some yardage of star fabric on a navy background until my eye fell of this stripe, that I had cut off the cuff of a pillowcase that had fallen apart.....thought to myself.....that is perfect!!!  Up-cycling clothing and a pillowcase.......awesome!

I cut the red ticking into 7"x 10" rectangles.....I just picked these numbers and partly because that was the width of the star stripe that I had to work with.  :)

Then I got out a package of Heat and Bond and cut strips that were 6 3/4".  Slightly smaller than the width of the star stripe to keep my iron clean.  And following the directions I fused the Heat and Bond onto the back side of the star stripe fabric.  Set it aside and let it cool.

Take the red ticking rectangles and trim the bottom edge to make some nice points.  Cut 1" up on the folded edge to the outside edge at the corner as shown and trim.  Do this to all your rectangles.

This what your rectangle should look like at this point.

Sorry I forgot to take a picture of cutting the star fabric.  You need to cut the star fabric 7" x 5".  Now if you are using a stripe you need to pay attention how you cut that, so you stripe is vertical.  Next you need to trim both sides as shown below, just like you did the ticking fabric above.  1" from the folded edge to the outside points.  When you have done both side it will look like this......

When you open it out, it will look like this......peel the paper fusible backing off the star fabric

I opened it up and creased it in half horizontally.  I am going to encase the top edge and iron the stripe on both side.  The ticking can be seen on both sides, so it makes it reversible.  A nice touch.

Following the Heat and Bond directions, I fused the star fabric to the top of the banner on one side then....

Flip it over and fold and fuse the other side encasing the top edge of your banner.

Then I pulled out my decorative rotary cutters and did a sample on a piece of paper, so I could see them and decide which one I wanted to use.  I chose the larger scallop.  And trimmed the sides of each banner piece.....sorry I forgot a picture of that part....I just used my ruler and took off a scant amount so that the scallop showed on both sides.  Very cute!

I hung them in my dining room with the letter banner that says "Duty......Honor.....Country" using those tiny clothes pins that you can buy at the craft store.  Like those too, easy to change things up.  If you like the Letter Banner, you can find it here.  I back my letters with black card stock.

Now I have a question for you, I have two of these star "bags"????? not sure what they are.  They are double layers, but you can put you arm or hand through the "handle"  or top part, the part that I have clipped to the twine.  My Grandma Kullmer or Great-grandma Weaver crocheted them and I have two of them.

The only thing that I thought of was putting your crochet cotton in the bag part and have it on your arm and use it to feed your crochet cotton as you crochet on a project.  It's an idea, not necessarily a good one.  Any thoughts on this.

Hope you enjoy this tutorial.....and I would love to see your banners.

Happy 4th of July!!!