Thanks for coming back to read more about expert tips for making banners. For over 20 years the Lord has taught me many things that I have applied to the art of fabric banner making. So far, I have shared my life experience in 1989 of losing my husband and raising four young children which inspired me to start a small home-based business making Christian banners for churches. Below I wrote about how to choose a design; make functional patterns from it; and transfer the patterns to your fabric. Now we will discuss how to choose the background fabric and make it the basic background of the banner. This article explains two ways to create the background: 1) unlined and 2) lined.
Either way, choose a fabric that will hold its shape. That means a heavy-bodied fabric that isn’t drapey or stretchy. Some examples are satin, canvas, linen or upholstery bridal fabrics. These will hang flat and nice and keep the basics. Later in future articles we will discuss fabric for flying flag banners that will require a different type of fabric.
You may need a carpenter’s “square” tool or any other right angle tool to ensure you have 90 degree angled corners and straight lines. If you have an Olfa padding mat, it works great. I use two large mats side by side, a rotary wheel fabric cutter, and a metal rod to align my fabric for straight edges and square corners. You don’t have to go to that expense; just improvise and measure, measure and re-measure before cutting.
1) Make the bottom without lining. Before cutting, be sure to leave extra fabric on top to sew into a finished sleeve large enough to accommodate whatever size dowel you intend to slide on top. The dowel can be a wooden closet dowel or a PVC pipe or metal rod. Also allow 3/8 inch to ½ inch for the side hems and extra at the bottom if you want a smaller shell. I like to add a small dowel to slide into a bottom casing to help the finished banner hang nice and straight. Use a small liquid line of Fray Check only on the heavily cut edges of the sides of the cut banner fabric. Fray Check is ideal for preventing fraying, especially for satins. Allow the Fray Check to dry completely (approximately 15 minutes). Now iron a hem on the back of the fabric. Place a small bead line of fabric glue (ie Aleen’s glue) where the folded hem is. Then iron the hem. This is how you will get a nice straight edge without any show stitches or wrinkling of the stitch material.
Now you can iron with the right size top cover; first 3/8 under and then the amount needed to accommodate the rod. Sew the casing. Do the same for the bottom edge if your banner is large and needs a smaller pin at the bottom so it hangs straight. If it’s a smaller size banner, you probably don’t need a bottom pin. In that case, you can iron a glued hem or Fray Check to the bottom edge and glue on fringe or trim. Be creative. You can sculpt the bottom to be rounded, pointed, notched, or other. Just make sure the finished product always has a clean, finished edge.
2) The second alternative is to align your banner. One way is to fold the same fabric, using the top for the fold. Or you can use a different sturdy fabric suitable as a lining. If you choose to line the banner, allow enough room for the side seams and the top and bottom seams. Of course, if you fold the fabric with the top as the fold, there will be no seam at the top. With both right sides together and wrong sides of the fabric facing out, sew all seams. Be sure to leave about 4 inches open at the top of each side seam so you can slide the top rod through. Carefully trim the bottom corners before inverting the banner so that the corners protrude toward a sharper finished corner. You are ready to feed the banner through one of the top side openings to reverse it so that the right sides are facing out. I call this “giving birth to the flag“Then iron the seams on medium-high heat with a damp thin cloth on top for a nice crisp edge.
Note: If I’m applying a quilt design to the front of my banner, I do it before I sew the back lining to it. We will discuss 3-dimensional quilt designs in future articles on more Advanced tips.
Now that your banner background is complete, you are ready to apply the cutout pattern designs and lettering to the front side of your finished banner background. my next article will be tips on how to apply your designs.