DIY: Floral Pennant Banner

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It's just like me to wait until the absolute last night of summer vacation to squeeze in a project. I was inspired to make my own floral pennant banner after I saw a few for sale on Etsy and though, "it can't be that hard!" It wasn't at all, and since I have some fabric left over I plan on making another one, either for myself or for a gift. So here's how I did it:

The first thing you need to make a pennant banner is fabric. I scoured thrift stores until I came across the perfect floral print in a long vintage Ralph Lauren skirt. It was several sizes too small for me to wear but the print was exactly what I wanted. 

Next, you'll want a template. I cut out a piece of card-stock in the shape of a triangle, but you can use paper, cardboard, or really anything depending on what you want the shape of your pennants to be. 

Trace the outline of your template on the underside of your fabric (just as if you were tracing a pattern to sew a garment). You could use tailor's chalk, but I just used a pencil. 

When you're done tracing one triangle, flip over the template and trace another one adjacent to the edge of the first shape. The result will be a rhombus. I originally intended to make the back side of each pennant in a solid color fabric, in which case I would cut out a single triangle of each fabric.

When the pennants are hung they'll be folded in half, so my banner will be reversible. 

How you string your pennants up is also due to preference. I cut three lengths of thing ribbon in colors that matched the pattern of my fabric and knotted them together at each end. I folded the lengths of ribbon in half, to make it easiest to place the pennants evenly, and distributed three pennants on each half (I just eyeballed the distances).

 I folded the pennants in half, which happened to be marked by the pencil lines I had drawn previously, and creased it slightly with an iron. Using a hot glue gun, I placed three dots of hot glue along the crease, set the ribbon on top of the same crease, folded over the fabric and pressed the ribbon gently into the dots of glue. Then I went back along the edges of the pennants and drew a line of hot glue to hold both halves together.

I let the glue cool, and that's it! I have more fabric left over, and I plan on sewing another banner rather than gluing it. Altogether it took about 30 minutes and I can't wait to hang it up in my dorm room tomorrow.