Birthday Banner

Buby + Bleu's playroom


Fabric banners are incredibly festive, if you ask me. I see them in a room and just get happy. The boy + girl designs at The Land of Nod are fun, but after seeing a Design Mom mention of banners I was inspired to make my own. Yes, ME. The girl who couldn't hem Buby's Chinese New Year outfit to save her life. SO, I skipped the patterns + thread and attempted it with nothing but decorative-edged fabric shears and Fabri-Tac {a permanent adhesive for fabric}. Worked like a charm, AND I didn't spend a penny. I have stacks of pretty fabric just sitting in my attic, a constant reminder of my days producing glamorous magazine spreads. I knew I wanted stripes and dots, blue and green, and a third punch of unisex color {either yellow or orange}. I went with orange because--like banners--I just get happy when I see it in a room.


I started by folding my fabric yardage in half so that I would get two triangles out of every cut and the banner would look cute from both sides. I didn't bother tracing. By eyeballing the shapes, every triangle {I had 56 total} was a little bit different, more kid-ish and casual. Then I drizzled a small amount of glue on the back of every other triangle. At the top. Again about 1/3 of the way down. And a third time at the tip. Then I pressed the two together. I ironed my stack of pretty-edged triangles and then thread them onto a never ending ball of twine Tom had in his tool box. I made three banners and secured them with metal tacks to crown molding in three central areas.


I'm embarrassed at how late I stayed up doing this, but I enjoyed creating something from nothing and surprising Buby with it on his birthday. I did contemplate writing "Happy Birthday" with puffy fabric paint but opted to keep it spare. These birthday banners will come out for a week every September and April. If you want to do it the REAL way with a sewing machine, click here for directions from The Purl Bee.

The foyer

The living room