Quick and Easy Banner with Heat Transfer Vinyl

how to make a diy banner with thrift store fabric and heat transfer vinyl

Welcome to Thrifty Thursday. Today I wanted to share with you how I made this Adventure Everywhere Banner with a scrap of fabric from the thrift store, and Siser Easy Weed Vinyl.

A few weeks ago, when I was out thrift shopping I noticed this piece of osnaburg muslin in the fabric section of the store. I love muslin and when I find it in thrift stores at a reasonable price, I’ll purchase it for making my muslin favor bags.

This piece was was only about 1/4 yard, and I debated about what I would do with it. At 25 cents it was still inexpensive enough, and I knew I could use it for a few favor bags. Plus the thrift store where I purchased it, supports a local private school. It was a win, win situation.

As I sat thinking about a project, I knew I wanted to do something different. When I looked at this piece it sort of jumped out and said “banner” to me. It doesn’t happen like that too often so I was a little excited!

To reinforce my thinking, I had found some small pieces of dowel when I was cleaning out my craft stash yesterday. I knew I could make it work!

I love to save money on crafting, and this project was very inexpensive.

You’ll need:

Piece of muslin-the size depends on how large you want your banner
1/4 inch dowel rod-I only used about half of it
A sheet of black Siser Easy Weed heat transfer vinyl
Inexpensive jute cord-I already had it on hand and it was purchased at Dollar Tree
An iron
Sewing Machine (you could also make it a no-sew project)

Thrift Store Muslin

Open view of muslin

Cutting the Muslin

I started out by cutting a 28-inch length, pressing all the creases out with a hot iron on the cotton setting, and then squared my piece up with my rotary cutter.

Trimming with rotary cutter

Here is the trimmed and folded muslin.

how to make a diy banner out of thrift store muslin

I turned this 90 degrees to get the orientation that I was looking for. I also folded the bottom ends to get an idea of how big my banner was going to be. Once trimmed this piece was about 8 1/2 inches wide, and the finished size is approximately 8 inches wide.

Cut the bottom where you want your point to be. I cut mine at 45-degree angles.

Design and Placement

The design I chose is ‘adventure everywhere’ word art by Loni Stevens from the Silhouette Store. I went ahead and purchased a commercial license for the design. I’m not sure if I’ll make any of these to sell at a craft show, but I thought this was a cute design, so who knows.

The final size for the design turned out to be about 7″ x 7.8″ to fit on the banner. If you decide to make this project, be sure to measure after you’ve sewn your banner in order for your design to fit properly.

Planning for the Rod Pocket

You want to plan for your rod pocket. This is a 1/4 inch dowel. Place a couple of pins where the rod pocket opening should be.

Sew 1/4 inch from the edge all the way around, from pin to pin, but leave about a 1 1/2 inch gap in the stitching along the side to turn your piece when you’re finished sewing. Keep in mind that you don’t want to sew the rod pocket area closed.

how to sew a diy banner from thrift store muslin

Stitching finished with opening for hanging rod

Clipping the Corners

When the sewing is complete, there will be three pointed areas. Two on the sides, and one at the bottom. Just give this a little clip and even remove a little of the bulk for easier turning. Be careful not to clip too close.

Turning

In the next photo, you can see where I left a little opening for turning the banner right side out.

how to sew a diy muslin banner from thrift store fabric

Now we have our banner turned right side out and I just topstitched about 1/4 inch from the edge. This wouldn’t be a necessary step, but I needed to sew my little turning opening shut, and top-stitching all the way around accomplished that task as well. The dowel needs to be trimmed down, so I’m just checking on that measurement as well.

Placing the Heat Transfer Vinyl

Cut and weed the Siser Easy Weed Vinyl. Remember to mirror your image when cutting your vinyl. Also, remember to do a test cut.

I recently upgraded to Silhouette Business Edition. When sending your design from Silhouette Studio to the machine, there is a prompt that asks if you want to mirror your image or send it ‘as is’. I already had mine mirrored, so please don’t get confused by this.

If you’re new to the Silhouette Cameo and heat transfer vinyl there are some great tutorials online. Craftsy Unlimited also has some great videos on using your Cameo and also cutting heat transfer vinyl.

I have a heat press, but since this was a small project, I decided to use my iron. Use a cotton setting and a pressing cloth. With the iron, it takes quite a bit of pressure and a little time to get the vinyl to adhere. I usually press an area for 15 seconds, then move on to another one and then come back if I have to.

A heat press is a wonderful tool, but if you’re going to do just a few small projects, an iron does work.

Take extra care when removing the vinyl carrier sheet when using this method. You want to be sure your design is completely adhered to before removing it.

I used some jute twine on both sides of my dowel to make a hanger for the banner. Isn’t it cute? I think I’m going to give mine to my grandsons for their room. Today I’m sharing this project over at Knick of Time where you’ll find other great DIY inspiration.

how to make a diy banner with heat transfer vinyl

I enjoyed sharing this tutorial with you today. Thanks so much for stopping by and we’ll see you again next time.

2018 Content and Photos by Say It With Simplicity

Adventure Everywhere DIY Banner