Thanksgiving Family Leaf Banner

Continuing the leaf theme why not craft up a Thanksgiving banner to store your LEAF PLACE CARDS and adorn your walls this year?  This family banner goes together easily. Customize with the font and words of your choice for a unique heirloom piece your family will look forward to every year.

You will need:

17″ x 23″ Felt background I used white

1/4 yard beige felt for bushel basket I used Pastry

1/4 yard letter color I used Chocolate

Felt scraps for Leaf Shapes (template here)  plus scraps for leaves on rope

I like Penny, Hot Chocolate, Mustard Seed, Autumn Leaves and Goldenrod

19″ dowel at least 1/4″ thick

Twine or ribbon to hang

Leaf place cards (tutorial here)

Fold felt in half as shown and cut as shown.  Set aside.

Cut out leaf shapes for base I used 8 leaf shapes but you can of course use as many or as few as you like.  Set aside.

From beige felt cut out bushel base, pocket, rim, top and bottom slat slats 1-10, these are made a little wonky to make it look more like a bushel basket so don’t worry about them too much.

On top of base line up slats in order 1-10 and place top and bottom slat over the top. Stitch down with a running stitch and matching thread.

Stitch staple details in a darker brown thread.

Stitch pocket to back of base. It won’t reach all the way down this is to keep the pocket shallow and place cards accessible.

Stitch down the bottom of the rim (the rest can be stitched down when you sew it to the banner.  Set aside.

Cut out the lettering, I used a font set to about 3″ tall. You can easily adjust your font for size or the amount of lettering.

In retrospect I do wish that I had chosen a thicker letter some of the thinner sections felt too fragile. For tips on cutting difficult shapes see THIS POST

Layout your pieces and adjust as desired.

Place your felt lettering and stitch down with matching thread and a running stitch.

Always place the lettering first. You can set each of your pieces with a small dab of felt glue to hold while you sew. You can also glue the shapes down but they lack the same feel as the stitched versions so I think the extra work is worth it.

Stitch down felt leaf shapes along the base and finally the bushel basket pocket on top.

Fold top of banner over 1.5″ for a small dowel, more for thicker dowels.

Sew or glue down to create a channel. Slip the dowel in.

Sew  two smaller leaf shapes to each end of your twine.

 

Happy Crafting!

Andie

Thanksgiving banner pattern and template use at full size

 

 

 

You might also enjoy these free felt craft patterns and tutorials: 

Felt Avocado Pattern

Stitch up some magnificent mug felt ornaments.