Felt Banner Tutorial

I love felt. I love the feel, the colours and its versatility. Oh, and the fact it doesn't fray! Acrylic felt can be picked up really cheaply these days, pure wool felt costs a little more but is a little softer and squishier. For things like this though acrylic is perfect.

I finally got a couple of shelves put up in the girl's room yesterday (after a fair bit of nagging). I wanted somewhere to put their jigsaws and maybe some books. I then decided I wanted to make it look a little more interesting. I've seen a few felt banners around and decided that that was what I wanted to make... so....

Materials:

• Felt (enough to cut out 2 of each shape)
• Needle
• Thread (matching or contrasting, anything will do)
• Stuffing
• Paper and printer to print the letter templates (or draw by hand if you like)
• Pins
• Ribbon

1. Grab whatever felt you have and decide on your word/colours etc

2. Work out what size letters you want (and remember you need 2 of each letter) and print them out so that you have templates to draw round - it's worth measuring here to check it'll fit on your felt.

3. Cut out your letters, place around with colours if you need to. 

4. Pin your letters to your felt - cut around it, cut 2 of every letter.

5. Blanket stitch (this youtube video shows how) around each letter making sure you've left a gap to push the stuffing in. Stuff the shapes and finish sewing them up. I had my 2 pieces pinned together as I sewed. Mine aren't the neatest but I chose similar-ish threads so you can't tell too much!

I also printed out star shapes and did the same.

6. Lay out your letters against your ribbon, mark where you will sew them.

7. Sew the letters (and stars if using) to the ribbon. In the end I sewed loops to the letters, threaded the letters onto the ribbon and sewed the loop lightly in place on the ribbon - this is because my shapes are quite big and they weren't hanging properly when I directly sewed them onto the ribbon. Play around to make it work.

8. Hang and admire!

The girls have asked for their names to be made the same way! I've said I'll think about it as I'm out of felt at the moment and I'm not that great at hand sewing. Maybe I should do it for the practise!