Buddy Banner
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This no-sew banner project is water-resistant and perfect for a favorite treehouse or sports team.
What you'll need
- Pencil and gum eraser
- Yardstick
- 1 yard of light blue flag fabric (35% cotton/65% poly blend, sometimes labeled Trigger)
- Scissors
- 1/3 yard of yellow flag fabric
- 1/3 yard of red flag fabric
- Your choice of materials for decorating. Some we used: fabric paint and brushes,
- charms and decorative pins
- Cloth tape
- Dowel, ½ inch in diameter, 28 inches long
- 1 ½ yards cording or clothesline
Before you begin, sketch a practice design on paper.
● Create a friendship crest; use personal logos or nicknames.
● Younger kids might substitute handprints for logos (use fabric paint).
● Use colored cloth tape to divide the banner into sections for each child to decorate.
● Use safety pins to suspend charms or pins from the triangles.
● Experiment with gluing or taping on fringe and other trim.
How to make it
Prewash and dry the fabrics. Draw a rectangle onto the blue fabric (see dimensions at right). For ease and to reduce fraying, use one of the factory-finished edges as one side of the rectangle. Cut out the rectangle. On the back, measure and pencil in a line 2 inches down from the top edge (this will fold down to create a sleeve for the dowel).
From the yellow fabric, measure and cut out 3 triangles of the dimensions shown. Cut 2 triangles of the same dimensions from the red fabric.
Next, kids can use materials such as fabric paint, fabric markers, buttons, colorful tape, and more fabric to decorate the banner (see Variations, below).
Once the paint is dry and has been heat-set according to the package directions, attach cloth tape along the outside back edges of the triangles and the rectangle to further protect the fabric from fraying. Loosely lay down the tape and press; stretching it will cause the fabric to pucker. Cloth-tape the triangles onto the back of the banner at the bottom.
Fold down the 2-inch flap and tape it to the back. Insert the dowel and tie on the cording to hang.
