Well, with warmer weather flirting with us and promising that it’s going to come and stay here for longer than just one day with a high of 65 degrees, and with the arrival of color me happy finally making it to stores, here’s a fun little project for you to spruce up your outside parties and celebrations. 

I know what you’re thinking…uhhh Vanessa, theres like a whole army of tutorials on how to make fabric banners…

YEAH I KNOW PEOPLE, but listen…I’m using a new pre-cut that Moda introduced last fall. It’s called the Slice. And there are some great free patterns already out there for these…so I’m adding my little bit of flair to the cause. 

This pre-cut is available in many fabric lines, look for it! Here I’ll be using my newest fabric line “Color Me Happy” this particular precut can be found here.

 Okay, ready to get started?

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 color me happy slice

2 – 4: 2″xWOF strips of fabric. (we are making the bias tape..but not on the bias)

 Depending on how long you want your banner to be will determine the number of strips of fabric you will need. 1 strip will be approx.  44″, two 88″ and so forth. For this tutorial lets just say 3 strips to make it 132″ long (because I wanted to use more of my slice precut!)

Making the Bias Tape:

Okay so first things first, to make the bias tape we will sew end to end your three 2″ strips. I wanted the strips to be connected as if they were on the bias so this is how I sewed my strips together:

 With right sides together I placed two strips just as I show in the picture, making sure there is at least 1/4″ over lap of each strip.

 Sew diagonally starting where the edges meet at the top (if you need to, draw a line diagonally from one side of where the edges meet to the opposite side of where the edges meet and sew on the drawn line )

Continue to sew all the way to the other side.

Do this again to the next strip to attach.

*tip: Place washi tape to guide you (place the washi tape edge directly down from where needle goes down into the fabric and keep where the fabric edges meet directly on that washi edge like the picture shows)

Next:

Once your strips are all sewn together to make one long strip, we will be folding in the edges to finish up the bias tape.

This way that i’ll be showing you might be a little different than you are used to. I learned this method from a seasoned quilter on how to “make do” if you don’t have a bias tape maker big enough for what you need:

 there are bias tape makers out there that are big enough for this project, but if you don’t have one (like me!) then this will do just fine.

here we show a couple of bias tape makers. both too small for what I need. So I will use an extra long pin as my bias tape maker:

With my ruler and pin in hand, I laid down the ruler on the ironing board and pinned in at the 1 1/4” mark to the end of the ruler. Creating a gap or 1 1/4″

Next I folded in the edges of the fabric and stuffed no wait gently placed in through the gap.

press this end down with an iron the start of your bias tape.

Gently pull through your strip and watch as the edges fold in.

As you pull through press (if you are right handed like I am I pull the strip towards my left. That way I can pull the strip with my left hand and iron with my right.)

*tip: make sure that your folded edges stay even, just check them and re-adjust if you need to. 

Making the Pendants:

 Open  your Slice precut of Color Me Happy.

There’s no cutting involved, that’s what makes this so great!

 Fold in half with right sides together

 We will be sewing the one short side and leaving the long side open.

 Using a 1/4″ seam sew the short side, starting and finishing with a back stitch.

 Turn inside out and press with an iron.

The open side will be nestled into your bias tape so that doesn’t need to be sewn.

Fold in 1/4″ in one end of your bias tape to make a finished edge, then fold back down and top stitch for about 12″ without placing a pendant. 

after the 12″ place your first pendant nestled in between your folded bias tape. Sew with a top stitch across the bias tape with the pendant in it. Continue until you have around 12″ left of your bias tape left. Finish by top stitching and then folding in the edge 1/4″ for a finished edge.

Banner done!

Now here’s hoping for some even nicer than 50 degrees weather on a consistent time frame!

we’ll talk soon!

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