Thursday, June 11, 2009

Patriotic fabric swag


Oh I am so excited about this one. I love to see houses decorated for the 4th of July. I adore all the swags I see. I wanted to make some, but when you factor in all the fabric it takes to make them, I was not too keen on the idea. I thought up this as a way to make a cute swag but with much less fabric! Yay!!


1. Gather your supplies

-You need two different fabrics. One to represent the blue with white stars on the flag, the other to be the red and white stripes of the flag. I found some adorable red and white checked fabric for the stripes.

-You need some coordinating Rick Rack. I got the widest I could find.

-You will need some coordinating wide width double fold seam binding

-And lastly, you need two bowls. I used my largest and smallest mixing bowls from a set. This way they were both the same shape, just in different sizes.



2. Trace your largest bowl on the blue fabric.

3. Trace your smallest bowl onto your red and white fabric.

4. Using Pinking Shears, cut around your circles.

5. With the right sides out, iron your red and white circles in half.

6. With the right sides out, iron your blue circles in half.

7. Leaving the blue circles folded in half, sew coordinating Rick-Rack around the curved edge, about 1/2 inch from the pinked edge. This is going to sew the circle together to form half a circle. I liked the double layer because it gave it a little more shape and because I was hanging this in a window. I wanted it to be somewhat double sided, although one side does not have Rick-Rack.

8. You now have half a circle with Rick-Rack on one side.


9. You are going to sew the smaller circle onto the larger one. In order to make it nicely double sided, you need to open up the red and white fabric. Fold the blue fabric in half with the Rick-Rack inside the fold. Using the ironed fold of the red and white fabric as a guide, line up the middle of the blue fabric with the center point on the red and white fabric. See below.

10. Unfold your blue fabric, carefully keeping the placement.

11. Fold the red and white fabric down over the blue. Pin into place.

12. Sew around curved edge of the red and white fabric. This will stitch the red and white fabric to the blue fabric.

13. Sew the desired number of half circles together as above. Then you will be ready to sew it into a swag. Using wide double fold seam binding in a coordinating color, sew the half circles inside the binding.


Now you have an adorable Patriotic Fabric Swag!! Make them for your windows. Make them for your porch rail. Make them for the front of your house.
I would love to see anything you make using this tutorial. I am so excited about how it looks in my house. I'm trying not to go overboard and cover the whole house with them;) I hope you love it too.
~~Anjeanette

11 comments:

Amy said...

I am so excited that you posted this idea. Our town has a huge fourth of July celebration every year and I have a front porch that needs a little decorating. I have always wanted to do a patriotic swag, but it is so expensive to buy one. If I get this accomplished, I will definitely send pics. Thanks so much!

Crystal said...

How cute. I love 4th of July decorations.

the monkeys' mama said...

i LOVE bunting, especially Patriotic bunting! My cousin is a Ranger and he got married on the 4th of July last year. Just might have to make this!

Regina said...

Saw you on Craft Gossip again -way to go ladies! And another awesome idea - much better than the commercial flimsy swags out there! I will need to try to get this made for my big shindig!

SandyQuilts said...

Adorable. Found you via Craft Gossip. Off to check out the rest of your blog. Thanks for a super great terrific tutorial.

Jules said...

crazy cuteness... gotta go. rushing to the fabric store because this will get made. thanks for the easy tute and fun twist on bunting!

Jen~ Lipstick and Laundry said...

That is AMAZING!! I am so making this!! Thanks for the great tutorial...

Elise said...

LOVE this!! I am sooo gonna do it, too!!
Elise

Jules said...

Linked your awesomeness today! http://www.joyshope.com/2009/06/stuff-i-want-to-make.html

Karin Schueller said...

Found you from Joy's Hope. You are BRILLIANT!!! I am doing a craft show 4th of July... I NEED this for my booth! lol. ;) Thanks so much for sharing!

Sarah said...

Saw you on Tip Junkie.

I really like this idea. Thank you for the tutorial. I hope I can make it before July 4th.