use your fabric scraps to create some decorative Spring accents
Gather Together:
- fabric scraps that are long enough to cut "strips" from
- covered wire
- tacky craft glue
- rotary cutter or scissors
- ruler
- bamboo skewers
- small paper bags
Prep
using a quilt ruler + rotary cutter, cut your fabric into 1 inch or 1/2 inch strips. you will need 2 strips per flag, swag or bag.
alternately you can use a fabric marking pencil on the wrong side of your fabric to measure your strips + then cut out using a pair of scissors.
working with one set of fabric strips at a time, place them on your work surface with the wrong side facing up.
cut a piece of covered wired roughly the same length as your fabric strip.
dipping your finger in the tacky glue (this was the quickest method for me) loosely spread the glue along the edges of the covered wire. place the wire, glue side down onto one strip of fabric. using the finger dabbing glue method quickly add some more glue on top along the length of the wire.
top with a second fabric strip to make a "sandwich". allow to dry. i let my strips dry for a couple of hours.
{a flag}
take a bamboo skewer in hand and begin to wrap one of your fabric strips tightly around it. it will be stiff and you may need to work it a bit to bend it around the skewer.
trim off however long or big you want your "flag" to be. snip the ends on an angle to create a "notched" effect. it can be tricky cutting through the wire while trying to avoid cutting into the fabric by mistake. cut at an angle until you "reach the wire", then bend down and snip off--see below:
bend your flag to create a "wave" effect.
now bake cupcakes.
{a swag}
Snip both ends of your fabric strip sandwich as above to create the notched ends.
Bend + position to create a "banner".
Glue bamboo skewers within the bend areas from behind.
now bake a cake.
{a bag}
Take one of your fabric "sandwich" strips and glue it to the top of a small paper bag. you will want the strip to be wider than the bag so that there is some overhang on each side of the bag.
open them up (this prevents the glue from seeping through to the opposite side + sticking the bag shut) + allow to dry.
Fill with treats + fold down the top of your bag over the fabric strip several times + fold tabs in towards center of bag.
Variations:
- wedding cake swag banner. embroider a word or initial on cotton or linen. cut into a strip. take a second precut strip, glue 2 pieces of wire-1 on the top edge and 1 on the bottom edge--and place your embroidered piece on top. notch ends if desired.
- ribbon flags. make square flags or rectangle flags from your ribbon remnants.
- use sturdy paper strips to make your wired bag tabs.
- cut your bamboo skewers using garden shears to whatever height you like.
- use a fabric pen to hand write a greeting on your flags + swags
