WINTER: make a faux vintage felt pennant

 

This is another 'just for fun' project to add to your winter decor - and also one of those projects that changed course a few times!

My original inspiration for this were two photos on Instagram, shared by Jens Fresh Vintage. Jen shared shots of her antique booth winter setup, showing winter paint-by-numbers and thermoses and ski's - and vintage souvenir pennants from ski resorts:


Recalling the fun days that I had spent skiing the slopes at Northstar and Squaw Valley in Lake Tahoe, I decided to make myself a felt pennant that looked old.

As you can see in the photo up above, I did not make pennants that say 'Lake Tahoe' or anything like that... I went bigger! 

Continue reading to see a step-by-step tutorial to make your own pennants - AND what I ultimately ended up doing with them in my studio!

I originally thought I would create one pennant with the word 'Winter' on it, as shown in the image above... but the more I thought about it, I didn't want it to be JUST for the winter season.

A few minutes on the innernets showed me a wealth of felt pennants that had state names on them - including California, which enlarged my vision and just made perfect sense for me! (I was born and have lived in California most of my life... roughly 43 years, except for a month in Arizona, a year in Idaho, and 18 years in Washington state!)


These two pennants are the result of allll of that inspiration!
Come make some with me....

Materials:

felt fabric - your choice of 2 colors (for each pennant) 
hot glue + gun . scissors . ruler . pencil . poster board for pattern

Method:

1. Make a pattern using the poster board by measuring and drawing a pennant shape in the size you wish. 

2. Cut the drawn pennant shape out using the scissors.

3. I measured and cut out the large sized pennant, then used one of the cut-away pieces of poster board to cut a smaller pennant shape as a pattern for a smaller pennant.

4. Lay your felt fabric flat on a cutting surface, 

5. Then lay the pattern over the fabric and trace around it with a pencil.

6. Remove the pattern and cut the pennant shape out of the fabric.

7. The green felt I had picked up at a thrift store ended up being VERY thin, which meant the pennant would not hang the way I wanted it to... so I cut out a second pennant shape from the green felt, just a tiny bit smaller than the first one, and hot glued the smaller piece to the BACK of the first piece.  

8 + 9. Repeat the process, cutting out a smaller pennant from a second color of felt to make a pair. (NOTE: My ivory felt was about three times as thick as the green felt was, so I didn't have to reinforce the pennant with a second layer.)

Now let's add some details:

1. Beginning with the largest pennant, lay it flat on a cutting surface. Place a piece of your second felt fabric under the flat end of the pennant.

2. Cut that second piece of felt into a rectangle that will wrap around the flat pennant end to create the edge binding. You'll be folding it in half, with the pennant sandwiched in between. The rectangle length should protrude just a bit beyond the edges of the pennant.

3. Cut another rectangle from the second piece of felt, the same length as the rectangle you just cut - but make it 2/3 the width of the piece you just cut. Then cut that rectangle into two long strips. 

4. Fold the first rectangle in half lengthwise, sandwiching the pennant end between each half. Hot glue each side in place with a THIN bead of glue. The ends of this will stick out longer than the pennant.

5. Fold each of the thinner strips in half in the middle, then pull one end away a bit so it is at an angle (shown in photo) - add a drop of hot glue between each folded half, very close to the fold, to secure in place.

6. Lay your pennant face down,  and lay the folded pieces onto the binding strip - spacing them out so they are closer to the pennant edge than the center. Placing each one *just* inside the outer edge of the pennant looks most like the vintage pennants. 

7. Hot glue each of those folded thinner pieces to the BACK of the pennant binding.

8. Repeat this process for any other pennants you are making - again using contrasting color felt. I Just switched the green and ivory placement on mine.

9. Using scissors, cut the ends of the pennant binding strip so that they are on the same diagonal angle as the pennant. You can see that the pieces I cut off were VERY tiny.

This can be a finished project, if you wish.
OR you can add more details to make it look more vintage...

For this step, I used acrylic paint, an oil-based paint pen, and an alcohol marker.

1. I have a sweet little 'D' embroidered patch that I got as a Disneyland Cast Member. I loved the look, but didn't want to actually glue or sew it to the pennant - so I traced it onto my smaller pennant instead. A thin pencil line around the patch gave me a pattern to work with.

2. After lifting the patch up, I filled in all of the traced area with solid white acrylic paint. It took three thick coats to build it up the way I wanted.

3. When that paint was dry, I used the thin end of a gray alcohol marker to outline the D.

4. I mixed up an acrylic paint shade to match the green felt, using two greens, white, and aqua blue paint. (You can see my paint shade tests next to the green felt in the photo)

5. With a small flat brush, I painted the green onto the white paint, leaving some white visible at the edges to approximate the look of the real patch. Two thin coats gave me the opacity I wanted.

6. After the green paint was dry, I used the same gray alcohol pen to draw a 'shadow'  - but this time I used the chiseled flat end of the marker for more surface color. I did not press hard on the felt as I was drawing the shadow because I wanted it to be a bit transparent... a light touch works best for that.

The trompe' l'oeil ('Fool the Eye' in French) gives the effect that the D is a dimensional patch - not just painted on.


1. A white oil-based paint pen was perfect for handwriting 'California', as it showed up clearly enough for me to paint over it with white acrylic paint.

TIP: Use your poster board pennant pattern to cut out a piece of paper the same size, then work out your lettering on THAT. Then lay it next to your pennant and space the letters the same.

2. I applied three coats of white acrylic paint - and when I put the third coat on, I used a blow drier to heat the paint and dry it quickly. It's hard to see, but the paint 'cracked' a bit - and if you've ever seen a real vintage felt banner, that's exactly what the words printed on them look like! (Usually because they've been rolled up and stored in a box or trunk for years). That's why the paint appears less crisp and clean than the paint on the D.

3. The final touch on the green pennant was to use the gray alcohol marker again, using the chiseled flat end to create a shadow next to each letter. I pressed a BIT harder on this pennant, to make the shadow darker and look more like the old pennants did.

As shown in the largest photo above, these easy paint techniques resulted in the effect of age, giving the pennants a vintage look. I think the thin-ness of the green felt and the way the edges are bending a bit (they're cut straight, the fabric just does that) helps even more to further the illusion of age.

A close-up of the details

I attached both pennants to my white matlasse' wreath using simple sewing pins.
I hung the pennants both vertically and horizontally to see which I liked better - I still can't decide!

There was one thing I had to add, tho:

Of course! Mouse Ears!
Because what's California without Disneyland and MICKEY?!!!

I also love this setup, even tho it doesn't have Mouse Ears. Reminds me of school team pennants (Go Rebels!!! - I'd make one that says that, but our school colors were red and gray. Doesn't fit my vibe!))... and yes, my high school had those. I'm old!  

Related Content:

Matlasse' fabric and pool noodle wreath tutorial


shared online:

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