Happy Birthday Cathy (and Canada)!
Posted by Christy Miller on Sunday 1 July 2012. Filed under: adjustable letter banner, Birthday banner, Fabric banner, Happy Birthday
No Comments »
If you really love Canada, perhaps you might want to celebrate by making an adjustable "Happy Birthday" banner from fabric. I made one for my mother-in-law, Cathy.
Cathy loves to celebrate birthdays. She never forgets them and plans well in advance so that if we can't get together on someone's actual birthday, we'll do it long before.
Cathy loves to celebrate birthdays. She never forgets them and plans well in advance so that if we can't get together on someone's actual birthday, we'll do it long before.
Our cue that there are birthday celebrations in the works is whether or not her "Happy Birthday" banner is up on the china cabinet when we arrive. Sometimes we whisper "Whose birthday is it?" and once I was able to duck back out to pick up a birthday gift for my sister-in-law.
Sure, the paper one gets the job done, but since we celebrate upwards of 10 birthdays a year now, I thought it was time that we upgrade Cathy's banner.
I tried to find a pattern that was what I envisioned: a fabric birthday banner where each letter could be adjusted on a ribbon "track", but to no avail. That makes this the first original thing I've sown. I learned a lot, including applying interfacing, top stitching and (the most challenging) buttonholes. I can't say I worked on it steadily, but it's been in the works for about 6 months, having had a few false starts and setbacks (i.e. Flock and Gather).
I'm not big into suspense, so I will say that I am so happy with how it turned out:
If you want to know the nitty gritty, here goes:
- Buy a pack of precut fabrics from my local quilting store (aka a charm pack).
- Choose a front and a back piece for each letter in your banner.
- Apply a medium to heavy weight interfacing to one side of each square for stability and to reinforce where you stitch your buttonholes. (Note: I applied it to the front, but in retrospect, I would have applied it to the back, as you have to reinforce the location of the buttonholes with interfacing anyways).
 |
| Apply interfacing to the back of each square |
- Pin the back and the front piece, wrong sides together.
- Trace the outline of the letter on the front piece and, with the pieces pinned together, cut the letters out with pinking shears. Don't worry so much about the edges being perfectly aligned when you cut with the pinkers; you'll be able to clean up the edges after you top stitch. But try to keep the inside loops of the P's, A's, the R, D and the B as tidy as you can as it will be more difficult to go back and cut them cleanly after you topstitch.
 |
| Use a fabric marker to trace the outline of your letter on the front piece. |
- If you didn't in step 3, apply a small square of interfacing to the back of each letter about a third of the way down on each side of the letter where you are going to make your side-by-side buttonholes to string your ribbon through.
- Now it's time to make your buttonholes: Separate each letter and make the markings for two sets of buttonholes on either side of the back of the letter, ensuring that the hole will be wide enough to accommodate the ribbon you have chosen.
Aword about button holes:
My sewing machineinstructions for making buttonholes were not very thorough and helpful, so Iwould check out a few YouTube videos or Google "How to makebuttonholes" before you start. I also suggest that you make accuratemarkings on your fabric (not using a Sharpie marker like I did, but an erasablefabric pen). The markings should look like two capital I's side by side.
The best tip I cangive about making two parallel buttonholes is practice, practice, practicebefore you start working on your letters. I never thought I would figure out buttonholesand was ready to throw in the towel on the project, but with some persistence(and a lot of patience) I got pretty darn good at them. This is definitely thetoughest part of the project, so hang in there.
- Cutopen your buttonholes (and check that you can weave your ribbon through).
- Pinyour letters back together, taking care to match up the inner loops on the P's,A's, the R, D and the B.
- Usinga straight stitch, top stitch each letter together.
- Cleanup the outer edges with your pinking shears for a finished look.
- Lineup your letters on a flat surface with the spacing you'd like in between eachletter and unroll the ribbon over top the letters, allowing a generous amountof ribbon on either side of the letters. Cut the ribbon to this length.
- Attacha safety pin to one end of the ribbon and weave it through your buttonholes.
- Foldeach of the ribbon over twice and stitch the edge to make loops for hanging oneither end.
- Admireyour fine looking birthday banner!
Folds for easy storage (ha!)
