kojotutorial: no-sew felt word banner

I have re-fallen (is that a word?) in love with felt lately, y’all.  It is available in every color palette I come up with, it is inexpensive, it doesn’t fray… Also, I already have a whole stack of it in my craft room… Just fabulous. 

My re-infatuation has been paired with a series of felt word banners.  Super simple (so simple in fact, that I’m pretty sure a tutorial is unnecessary… maybe I should call this a how-to?) and quick as can be.  Again, just fabulous.

To make a felt word banner, you’ll need:
-9×12 sheets of felt or wool felt (one sheet per letter)
-thick grosgrain ribbon (a couple yards)
-a hot glue gun
-scissors

Cut out the letters to spell your word.  Don’t make this harder than it needs to be- I didn’t use a template or even trace out my lines beforehand, just freehanded it.  The letters are less than uniform, but I think that gives the banner character.  Oh, and use the size of your felt sheet to gauge sizing (I used the 12″ height of the felt sheet as my letter height and generally used the entire 9″ for my width, unless I was making an “i” or something similarly skinny). Two other things to try if you’re feeling wild: 1- Use your scraps to create letter ‘holes’ (like the hole in the top of an “A” or a “P”), 2- Round all your corners as you cut.  You know, just to keep things interesting.

Take your hot glue gun and glue the tops of your letters to thick grosgrain ribbon.  Glue liberally- the felt is flimsy and the ribbon gives the felt a little stability so the letters hang right. Also for stability, bring the felt all the way to the top of the grosgrain (or even a little above the ribbon).

Done!  Use to decorate your next party!

ps- Do you see that fabulous pergola cover in the background of the “Happy Birthday” banner above and the “Eat” banner at the very top of the post?  The Overly Ambitious To-Do List is being whittled, y’all (“sew our pergola cover” was #3)!  I still have a few things to do (most notably, throw my little sister’s Owl Baby Shower next weekend), but everything else is at least at the work-in-progress stage already.  And with 4 weeks still to go!  I’ll try to put together some pics showing you all of the finished products sometime soon…