Happy Seventh of July

Well, the blog post I was going to have ready for the Fourth is arriving today.

Happy Seventh Eighth of July!

There may not be fireworks on the seventh eighth, but it's a Saturday Sunday and that's always a reason to celebrate.  It's my friend Linda's birthday and last night we got two inches of much needed rain. I'd be willing to light a sparkler for all that!

I have a quilty project to share that I made with Dorothea (not her real name, though I call her that when I'm not calling her Mom).

I'll be ready for the next Fourth of July!

This flag was fun to make and we did it start to finish in one sitting.  I am happy to share how we did it, but please know, I am terrible with tutorials. I am apologizing in advance.  Here's what you'll need other than the obvious sewing machine, thread and willingness.

Heat and Bond to applique on stars
Blue painters tape

Wooden dowel the width of your flag to support the flag and make it easier to hang. 

I bought a 36" one and my husband cut it to size after I knew how big the flag was going to be.

Red, white and blue fabric cut in strips of different lengths

2 - blue 12 x 12 (approximately) to hold the stars
1 - 4" x the width of your finished flag to make the rod pocket

A group of quilters my mom and I belong to called the Piecemakers made Quilts of Valor for nineteen veterans and these are some of the scraps left over from that worthwhile project.

Dig through your red, white and blue stash

We are just honoring the spirit of the flag, so prints and solids were acceptable to us, so was unfinished, frayed edges.  We also were determined to use what we had.  Everything we had came out of this little box.

Hint: It is easier to iron the strips individually before you sew it all together.

I cut 2 - 10" x 10" square out of blue for the stars. 12" x 12" might have been better depending how large you want your flag to be.  Ours grew bigger than I thought it would be.  I drew thirteen stars on the paper side of heat and bond and cut them out to iron on in a circle.

Don't agonize over making the stars.  They don't have to be exact.

I cut out two because I want the flag to be viewed from both sides and look complete.  I ironed the stars in a circle to represent the thirteen colonies.  I was too lazy to make fifty for each side.  I also forgot to stitch around them after I fused them on.  If you have a better memory than mine, now would be the time.  I left the edges raw on the blue squares.

Hint: Make sure one end of the strips are lined up.

Now comes the fun part: laying out the stripes. We started out just putting red and white only and it looked a little sparse so we began to add the printed ones you see.  We did not care if the widths or lengths were the same.  We wanted the frayed around the edges look so we were not bothered by the raveled or selvage edge.  We did make sure that the edges closest to me were even so I could sew them to the header.

Use the blue painters tape to secure the stripes.

We fiddled with this for a while getting them adjusted like we wanted them.  To keep from having a "wrong" side to the flag we folded some of the prints in half and pressed them so there would be no back of fabric showing or we put wrong sides together so either side would look good.  If some of your fabric strips aren't long enough, just add to them either with more of the same fabric or a different fabric for a more scrappy look.

The painters tape was very helpful.

Then we taped down the strips to the table so we could keep them together until I was ready to sew them to the header.  

Don't do what I did.  If you have a seam in your header sew down the seam allowance or your wooden dowel will not easily slide through the rod pocket.

Next decide what fabric you are going to use for the flag's header.  I was going to use a 2 1/2 strip because I had a bunch of them but by the time you turned the outer edges under, it will be too narrow for the dowel to easily slide through.   The one I used was about 4" wide x the width of the flag.

I used this dotted piece of scrap that had a seam in it.  I thought it would look cool since it was part blue dots and part red dots.  I liked it a lot until I had to poke that wooden dowel down the rod pocket and it hit those open seams and wouldn't go any further.  Then I was grumpy.  Dorothea took it away from me and twisted the dowel several times and it slipped on through. My mother, the problem-solver, is one determined woman! 

I used lots of pins.

The blue painters tape at the very edge held everything together until I could get the header pinned onto it.  Sew a  1/4 " seam across the top of the flag strips.  Be sure to give yourself plenty of room to get all the strips sewn into to the header.  You can trim evenly after you sew the seam.

Don't forget to remove the tape and trim everything back.

Remove the tape at the header.  Trim the edges back to a 1/4" seam allowance and fold the header over turning under the edge and pin.

This photo is on the same side as the one below.  My header is both red and blue.

The hard part is almost done.

Top stitch along the edge making sure that you are capturing everything underneath.  

Run the dowel through the rod pocket.  Dorothea braided three strip of red, white and blue to create the hanger and then tied it to each end. 

TADA!  I hope this tutorial has made the least bit of sense and will help you design and make your own.

Dorothea and I had fun doing this together and we are still speaking after we finished. That's something to celebrate! Hahaha.  Even if I am still:

Frayed Around the Edges, 

Diana

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