Love is in the air, and here’s an easy, breezy L-O-V-E pennant banner!  Banners are fun, festive, and lend themselves to any occasion or holiday!  Here’s how I did it!  I mention all the materials I used for my banner, but you can easily change it up and use what you like or have on hand.

Materials:
Creamy white burlap (scraps from another project)
Various cotton fabrics in pinks and reds
Matching thread ( red, pink, and off white)
Natural twine ( ribbon, Pom-Pom trim, jute, etc. would work)
Paper for a pattern
Heat-n-Bond

Tools:
Ruler
Marker
Scissors
Iron/ironing board
Sewing machine
Letter stencils (mine are 4″)

First thing I did was make a paper pattern for a pennant.  Mine measured 6 1/2″ across the top and 9″ down the sides.  I also found a free heart template on-line which was approximately 3 1/4″ at its tallest and widest points. Then I cut out 6 pennants from burlap.  Using a wide zig-zag stitch, I stitched along the long sides of each pennant to help prevent raveling.  If your fabric doesn’t ravel easily you can skip this step.

Now it’s time to make your letters and hearts.  I decided to have my banner say “LOVE” with a heart on either end.  Using my 4″ stencils, I traced each letter onto Heat -n- Bond following the directions on the product. ***remember to reverse your letters when tracing!!!  I forgot  even though I’ve done this before!  I was glad I used a pencil and could erase.

Since I wanted each letter and heart to be of a different fabric, I cut a rectangle around each one I traced on the Heat-n-Bond. Now I ironed those pieces onto the wrong side of the fabrics I chose for each letter and heart.  Next it was time to use my tracing lines to cut out each heart and letter.  Peel off the Heat-n-Bond backing.

Paper patterns

Paper patterns

Supplies

Supplies

Reverse letters

Reverse letters

I was ready to iron all my letters and hearts onto my pennants.  Check to see that the letters adhere to the pennant.  Because the burlap was rough and uneven my letters stuck, but I felt like they would have adhered better if I had used a smoother fabric for the pennants. That being said, I felt the need to top-stitch each letter and heart once I ironed them on the burlap.  Sounds like a lot of trouble, but it actually went quite quickly.

Ready to press

Ready to press

Ironed on

Ironed on

Top-stitched

Top-stitched

To make my pennant banner I turned the pennants over to their wrong side.  Leaving about a 24″ tail for tying and hanging, I began stitching the natural twine to the backside of the pennants using a wide zig-zag stitch, placing the twine about a quarter inch from the top of pennants. After I stitched twine on the last pennant (one of the hearts), I measured about 24″ of twine for tying/hanging and cut it.  Originally I thought about using pom-pom trim along the tops of the pennants, but in the end decided I didn’t need it.  I tore 2 strips of one of the fabrics I used for letters and tied them at each ends of the banner.

Zig-zagging twine

Zig-zagging twine

This banner can be easily changed to your liking!  The sky’s the limit!