It’s stars and stripes season!

This pennant banner is the perfect project to dress up your mantel or front door. It’s such a quick stitch and is so much fun!

What you need:

First things first – assemble your supplies.

• This design!
• Fabric – enough for the front and back of the pennant, with Heat and Bond Lite ironed on the underside of the fabric. I find that small patterns or solids work best for this - and it’s fun to do the back of the banner a complimentary different fabric! You’ll need enough for the front AND back of the banner, the accent triangle on the front, and the star.
• Sheet of white craft foam OR white stiff craft felt – your choice here, I lean towards felt on this one for the sturdiness/bulk) but it’s up to you!
• If you're going to float this project, something to float it on - sulky sticky is my favorite product.
• Sharp scissors (all the scissors - applique, fabric cutting, rotary blade, and exacto knife)
• Iron 
• Spray adhesive
  

NOTE: There are so many methods for doing projects like this, so I just want to give you a few ideas and how I do them! Play around and see what you like best. There is no ‘wrong’ way to do this!

Let’s get started!

• Step 1: Float or hoop your foam/felt on your embroidery machine. When I float, I always clamp it within an inch of it’s life! If you’ve got magnetic hoops, or prefer a traditional hoop - then this project just got easier, hoop the felt/foam directly and pop it on the machine!

• Step 2: Run the placement stitch around the project.
• Step 3: Spray your felt/foam with adhesive spray, and then place your fabric (Heat and Bond Lite side down) on top of your felt/foam. Secure these layers together!
• Step 4: Run the tack-down stitch.
• Step 5: Run the placement stitch for the accent fabric

• Step 6: Place your fabric (Heat and Bond Lite side down) on the pennant and clamp/pin/sewtite the layers together.
• Step 7: Run the tack-down stitch for the accent fabric. A bean stitch step will directly follow!

• Step 5: Now it’s time for the star! Run your placement stitch, lay down your star fabric, run your tack down stitch step AND the bean stitch step. Trim the star AFTER you’ve run that final bean stitch stem.

• Step 6: TRCKY PART! Grab your background fabric again and slide it (Heat and Bond Lite side UP!) between your hoop and the bed/arm of your embroidery machine. I like to take my hoop off the machine first and spray the fabric lightly with adhesive spray and stick it to the back side of my project to help keep the backing fabric from sliding around. You can also add binder clips, fabric clips, or sew tites to help hold it in place!  Run the last applique step. 

NOTE - before you keep going, make sure you’ve trimmed the star and the accent fabric here. Don’t trim the base fabric of the pennant - wait until the final cutting step for that layer! If you don’t trim the star and accent fabric now, the button holes will stitch through all the layers of fabric and it won’t have that clean polished look.

• Step 8: Run your the bean stitch outline around the pennant! The design is programmed to add the button holes here for your ribbon or string, and it’s important that they run now so they can go through both the top fabric, the bottom fabric, and the felt/foam.
  
• Step 9: Pop your whole project out of the frame and trim! I use a quilting ruler with a ¼ inch border and a rotary cutter to make sharp, clean sides on this project.

• Step 10: Use an exacto blade to slice through the button holes and run your ribbon through. Tie a pretty bow and....

• Done! Make one, three, five...however many you need!

Some tips and tricks:

• Pick one thread color – my favorite machine for this project is my single needle! I pick my thread color and use that color for every single step.
• If you’re doing this to hang on your mantle and need many, alternate colors to make it really fun!

Most importantly, enjoy this one!  It's such a simple stitch and brings such a wow factor.  Hope you love it!

Beth