WELCOME TO TUTORIAL WEEK!! The first tutorial I have for you is my No-Sew Fabric Birthday Banner. I love that we can use this banner over and over to celebrate each family member’s birthday. {Sorry my house looks so bare in the pic. I took all my wall hangings down because they were very distracting in the pictures. Don’t worry, my house does not normally look like this!!:}
How to Make a No-Sew Birthday Banner
Supplies needed:
- “Wonder Under” 2 yards
- 7-14 different coordinating fabrics, you only need a little bit of each. I bought Fat Quarters and had plenty of extra.
- Double fold Quilt Binding, 3 yards
- Hot Glue Gun
- Felt, 7 sheets cut into 5″x7″ pieces (you’ll get 2 per sheet)
- Rotary cutter with mat and guide OR scissors, fabric marker, and a yardstick (I highly recommend using a rotary but it’s not necessary)
- Fabric Paint, matte finish (not glossy or slick)
- Foam bush
- Freezer paper
- Iron
First, iron your fabric so there are no wrinkles.
Cut a piece of Wonder Under at least 6″x8″ (can be bigger) and iron the non-paper side to the back of your fabric, following package instructions. (do not peel paper backing off yet)
Cut the section of fabric with Wonder Under on it to be 5″x7″. Be sure that the 5″x7″ piece is completely covered by Wonder Under. Also, be conscious of the direction of the pattern of your fabric and cut accordingly.
Peel off the Wonder Under paper backing.
Take one 5″x7″ piece of felt and place your piece of fabric on top. glue side down. Center on felt being sure to line up sides as best as possible.
Iron the fabric as directed on your Wonder Under packaging. Then flip over and iron for a couple seconds on the felt side. I found that this makes it lay flat. Now repeat the previous steps until you have a total of 14 squares of fabric with felt backing.
Next make a freezer paper stencil for “Happy Birthday”. There are several ways to do this, the easiest is to cut the freezer paper with a personal die-cut machine, paper side up. You will use the negative for your stencil so when you cut around the letter, give yourself some room. OR You don’t have to have a die-cut machine, you can also run the freezer paper through your printer (be sure that the paper side is up) and then cut out the letters with an exacto knife.
Now lay out your fabric squares and determine what order you want the fabrics in. Note: There will be a blank space between “happy” and “birthday”….
Next you’ll iron your freezer paper stencils onto your fabric squares. One letter per square. Iron for 20-30 seconds with a medium heat. Be sure that the freezer paper adheres well. If it doesn’t, iron for a few more seconds.
Next you’ll paint on your fabric paint. I did 2 coats. Let it dry for an hour or so between coats. Tip: If you’re in a time crunch, you can whip out your hair dryer to speed the drying up! :)
When you have the coverage you want and the paint has dried completely {let sit for at least an hour}, peel off the freezer paper stencil. You’re supposed to set the fabric paint with an warm iron for a few seconds…. but I didn’t. I don’t really plan on washing this banner….at least not very much! But if you’re a perfectionist
(I’m SO not!) go ahead and set your fabric paint with a warm iron.
Ta-da!
Today is brought to you by the letter “A”. jk
Ok, now find the center of your Quilt Binding and mark it with a pin {or a finger…} Between the letter “B” and “I” is the center of the wording “Happy Birthday” so you’ll place these two letters on either side of your pin {or finger}.
Now sandwich the top of your fabric squares in the middle fold of your Quilt Binding so that the binding shows on the front and on the back of the fabric. Sorry, I’m not very good at explaining things. Good thing I have pictures to back me up.
Next put a line of hot glue {you can barely see it in the pic} across your fabric square and press the binding down. {if you were fancy schmancy, you could sew your binding closed, but I’m all in favor of making it simple and fast. Plus, this is going to be hung, not worn!}
Yes, I did this on my ironing board. I don’t know why, I just did.
Keep on hot gluing the rest of the squares in place.
Next, flip over your banner and run a line of hot glue across all the squares.
And finally, glue the remaining binding shut. You should have plenty of extra binding on each end to hang your banner with.
And there you have it, your No-Sew Fabric Birthday Banner. I’m sure there are better ways to do this, but hey, it worked for me.
happy crafting!
About Linda@CraftaholicsAnonymous
I love it! It's wonderful :) Anything "no sew" works for me LOL
Cute! You can even do this for boy or girl! Thanks!
How creative are you!! I love the idea of doing it with paint instead of fabric. So fun!
LOVE IT!!!!!!!
Adorable!!! :)
What a great idea!!! Can't wait to try it!
Very cute! And I love that it is "no sew". I linked to this post in my Friday Favorites. ~Lanie
This is wonderful, thank you!
This is such a great idea! Thanks so much for the tutorial-it is now on my today list!
Sonja
Regina, Sk.
Canada
Just made one using your tutorial for my son´s 2nd birthday party!!! I loved how it turned out!
I made felt letters instead of painting them and used the hot glue gun to stick them to the fabric.
thank you for posting this!!!
way to go, Fernanda! i’m so glad you used my tutorial! that’s a great idea to use felt letters instead of painted ones. tons faster!
thanks for saying hi!
happy crafting,
linda