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How to Make a Fabric Banner for Any Occasion

Learn how to make a fabric banner with any saying of your choice. You can use felt or fabric. This is perfect for a variety of occasions!

How to Make a Fabric Banner for Any Occasion

My home studio is quite stark and boring. Not the creative, inspirational space I need to get the most out of my work. So I wanted to make something to help give my studio the flair it needs.

I had this idea to make a banner in my head for a while but I just couldn’t work out how to cut the word from the fabric without getting lots of messy edges from the fraying fabric.

Then the lightbulb moment came. FABRIC MOD PODGE. And it worked beautifully! Check out how to make your own . . .

Fabric Mod Podge, felt, and a paintbrush

How to Make a Fabric Banner

You will need:

  • Fabric Mod Podge
  • Wide and thin paint brush
  • Felt
  • Fabric piece for your word – I used calico
  • Small dowel rod
  • Pencil
  • Acetate
  • Scissors
  • Strong craft glue
  • Printer and paper
Paint fabric with Mod Podge and a paintbrush

Step 1

Lay a small piece of calico onto a sheet of acetate. You want to cover both sides of the fabric with Mod Podge. To do this apply a generous coverage of Mod Podge to one side of the fabric, flip it over sticking the fabric to the acetate. Then you can cover the other side. Leave it to dry.

Dried calico fabric peeled off of an acetate sheet

Step 2

When the Mod Podge dry and peel it off the acetate. You’ll find one side has a very plastic, shiny surface and one has more of the existing fabric texture.

Tracing a word onto fabric in reverse using a pencil

Step 3

Print out the word you want to have on your banner in reverse. Trace the word onto the shiny side of the fabric (still in reverse).

Cutting out a word from fabric using scissors

Step 4

Cut the word from the fabric. This is where you get to see how awesome Mod Podge is for this project. No freeing edges, only perfect lines. 🙂

The word "create" cut from fabric laying on a cutting mat

Perfect! No fraying edges and on the front you still have the great texture of the calico.

Magenta felt cut to a point laying on a cutting mat with scissors

Step 5

Cut your felt into a point.

Glue being applied to the top of a piece of felt underneath a dowel rod

Step 6

Apply a strip of glue to the top edge of the felt and stick the dowel rod to it.

Dowel rod rolled onto felt covered in glue

Apply more glue to the felt and roll the dowel until it is totally covered in felt.

Fabric Mod Podge bottle on top of a dowel rod rolled in felt

Use something to hold the felt and dowel in place while the glue dries. The Mod Podge bottle works really well. 😉

Felt wrapped around a dowel rod and glued

Ta Da!

Hand applying Mod Podge to the back of the word with a paintbrush

Apply a generous amount of Mod Podge to the back of your word and stick it to your banner. Finito!

Make a fabric banner with Mod Podge

Cute, right!? And you can make a banner with any word! A season, holiday or even someone’s name.

This guy now holds pride of place above my computer in my studio. 🙂

How to make a fabric banner
How to make a fabric banner
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Fabric Banner

Learn how to make a fabric banner using felt and other basic supplies. Perfect for decor or parties.
Prep Time30 minutes
Active Time1 hour 30 minutes
Total Time2 hours
Yield: 1 banner
Cost: $5

Equipment

Materials

Instructions

  • Lay the fabric piece onto acetate or wax paper. Apply Mod Podge to one side; let dry. Flip over and repeat.
  • Print out the word you want to have on your banner in reverse. Trace the word onto the smoother side of the fabric (still in reverse).
  • Cut the word from the fabric using the scissors.
  • Cut your felt into a point on one end.
  • Apply a strip of glue to the top edge of the felt and stick the dowel rod to it.
  • Apply more glue to the felt and roll the dowel until it is totally covered in felt. Use something to hold the felt and dowel in place while the glue dries.
  • Apply a generous amount of Mod Podge to the back of the word and stick it to the felt. Let dry.
  • Cut a length of twine and tie to both ends to hang the fabric banner.

Now that you know how to make a fabric banner, check out some other home decor projects you might like:

Project Rating




Bryana Childers

Monday 9th of August 2021

Can I use Fabric Mod Podge to glue felt to felt?

Amy

Monday 9th of August 2021

Hi Bryana! It's a little tougher to glue felt to felt with Mod Podge, though it can be done. Felt is really absorbent. I would recommend putting a book or something on top of the two pieces to keep them together during the drying process.

Creative Khadija

Friday 9th of May 2014

How nice! Beautifully done & not so difficult as well :)