Easy Peasy DIY Flag Garland (and a few thoughts on sewing)

I first made a flag garland for Big Brother’s third birthday, 4 months ago. It was my very first sewing project. Ever.

By way of background, I have never been very good at the domestic stuff. Now that I have children myself, I realize that this might be because my mom worked full-time, and so the things that I saw her do and tried to emulate were more about work and art (she is a commercial interior designer) than cooking and cleaning. I'm sure my parents saw that as a good thing--in the 70s and 80s women were striving for equal recognition in the workplace (I suppose they still are), and who would count it as anything but a blessing that I wasn't learning to spit-shine the house? Later, when my mom tried to teach me about cooking and doing laundry, I was in the throes of high school and friends and boys and wasn't at all interested. And truth be told, I stayed that way pretty much until I got pregnant with my first child.

For this reason, I have always regarded the domestic arts with a little awe and a little fear. Cooking, cleaning, sewing were like essential rites of passage into grown-up womanhood--things I was eager to avoid early on, but felt drawn to as I got older. And queen among them has always been the most intimidating and yet compelling of all: sewing.

Sewing compelled me because of the great potential for DIY home décor and children’s clothes on a budget. I remember that, despite her busy schedule, my mom conducted fabric-based renovations of my room at least twice while I was growing up, and made numerous beautiful things on a budget for our house. My grandmother, a beacon of Southern strength and female propriety, kept her sewing machine out all the time—ready to sew all of my dressy clothes, as well as matching outfits for my dolls. And come February 2010, with two children and a home in desperate needed of some sprucing up, I decided that it was finally time to overcome my fears and join the womanly ranks of my family.

I knew that I had no time for books, or a class, or anything that would make sewing seem more intimidating that it already was (at age 24, I tried the ‘buy fancy books and teach yourself’ route, and it lasted about 3 days). Instead, I picked a tutorial for flag bunting out of Ohdeedoh's Top 10 Sewing Projects for Beginners, asked my mom to show me how to load up her machine, and spent an entire evening sewing straight stitches across little felt flags. I didn't break the machine, and by the end I had more pretty little triangles than trash.

It's a bit silly, but by the end of that night, I felt like some insurmountable wall between me and domestic womanhood was coming down a little. Or that I was channeling my inner 1950's housewife, or something. It felt good, it gave me confidence. So that was an exceptionally long way of telling you that if you want to learn to sew but don't think you can do it, it's time to sew a flag garland.

Materials:

• Fabric: I used about one yard of two different fabrics for Little Brother's birthday party garland. If you like felt, buy one square (of the size they sell at Michaels) for each flag. If you (or your mom!) have a bunch of leftover sewing scraps, this is a great way to use them up without buying anything new.
• Something to string flags on (I used a coil of rope Jim had in his toolbox; you could also use ribbon or cording)
• Pinking shears (funny scissors that cut in a zig zag pattern; you don't need these if you use felt)
• Basic sewing supplies (scissors, thread, sewing machine)
• Large safety pin

Step 1.
Fold your fabric about one foot from the edge. Use pinking shears to cut triangles out of the fold. The amount of triangles you cut will determine the length of your garland. In my opinion, the more the merrier (and the more variation in fabric, the better--a lot of different colors and patterns would look fantastic against a neutral wall in a child's room).

If you want to be economical, you can also cut the "leftover" triangles out of the fabric. I did. Because they don't have a fold, they have to be sewn a little differently, but you can't see the variation when they're hanging and it's worth it for a longer garland. See what I mean?

Step 2.
Use a sewing machine to sew a straight line across the top of each folded triangle, about 1/2 an inch from the folded edge. Reverse to lock the stitch at the beginning and end of your line. For the "leftover" triangles, you'll need to sew two lines to make a pocket for the rope, one as close as possible to the top of the triangle, the second about 1/2 inch underneath.

Note to beginning sewers: If you need help sewing a straight stitch, or even turning on the machine (I did), refer to the manual that came with your machine. That's all you need. You CAN do it. 

Step 3. Attach a safety pin to one end of your string/rope/ribbon, and use it to thread the rope through all of your triangles. Keep going until you have the look and length you want, then cut the rope (if you haven't already--I wait until the end to avoid having to pre-measure. It's a lazy thing) and tie the ends up wherever you need a little splash of color (and wherever you can keep your one year old from strangling himself with it). Enjoy your creation!