Flag Making Tutorial
Make your own pirate flag.

Sat, 23 Jun, 2007
Lee Thompson-Herbert

Text-only Placeholder version of page!

To make yourself a flag, you will need the following materials:



Optional:



Decide what size flag you want, and what you're going to use it for. Flags that are going to hang on a wall can be heavier fabrics (and probably SHOULD be, so they will hang correctly). Flags that are going to be attached to a pole of any sort, or meant to wave in the wind should be lightweight fabrics. Banners (anything that has a pole lengthwise across the top) should be heavier fabrics.

If you plan to put fringe on a flag, make sure your fabric is up to the weight (bullion fringe is heavy, don't expect china silk to hold it, use lighter fringe instead). Also decide where the fringe will go: is it going to be just on the bottom edge, just on the edge along the flagpole, or all the way around the flag? Different designs will dictate how heavy and how long a fringe you should pick.

So you've decided what type of flag you're making, what size it is, and how it will hang. Now you can draw your design. In general, you need to keep in mind that flags are seen from a distance of no less than 5 feet, and usually more like 20 feet. Make sure your design is large enough to be seen. Simple designs with strong lines are easier to decipher than something complicated with very thin outlines. Strongly contrasting colors are better than similar colors, since the design will be viewed from a distance.

So you've made your design. You know what size the flag will be. Take your backing fabric and hem the edges to keep it from unravelling. You can either do a real hem (turn it under, sew it, turn it under again to hide the raw edge), or you can use your sewing machine's EDGE STITCH to go around the edges. Set the stitch size fairly small (on my machine, I use about an .08 settting). If you don't have an edge stitch or blanket stitch, you can use a small zig-zag stitch set to about 08 or 1mm. If you're lucky and have a serger and know how to thread and run the beast, you have it made. That machine will both edge and trim the fabric, giving you a finished edge.

When you've edged the backing fabric, take your paper version of your design and see if it really fits your flag. Most people will need to either draw or print their design on multiple sheets of paper and tape the sheets together to get a big enough drawing. If your drawing is the right size, go back to the computer and print the design mirrored (backwards). You'll need everything reversed, because you're going to be working on the back side of your design fabric for a while.

If your flag is two sided, you're going to have to make a design decision: do you want both sides of the flag to match exactly, or do you want them both to read the "right" way? If you want both sides of the flag to match up, you'll need one mirrored version of your design, and one normal version (you can't have lettering for a flag like this). If your flag needs to read the "right" way on both sides, print both copies of the design mirrored. You're ready to start working with fabric again.

Look at your design sheet. Figure out which pieces will be a particular color and mark them with the sharpie marker (ie "white", "blue," "green," "red"), so you don't get confused later). Get out your design fabrics. You're going to iron the fusible webbing to the WRONG side of the design fabric. Don't peel the paper backing off. It should come off the roll with one side already free and ready to be ironed.

WORK ONE SIDE OF THE FLAG AT A TIME AT THIS STAGE, OR YOU WILL REGRET IT


Make a piece large enough for your largest design section. If you need to use more than one width of fusible webbing, peel the backing off ONLY the edge that the webbing pieces will overlap (and only on the bottom piece of webbing). FOLD the paper backing out of the way 1" from the edge. Lay the new piece down on that exposed piece of raw webbing (that's your overlap)
.
When you have your webbing fused onto the fabric, you're going to trace your design onto the paper backing. You will cut out your printed design and use it as a tracing template (this is how people who can't freehand draw get by). Don't use your fabric scissors on paper, ever! Cutting paper dulls scissors extremely fast (in fact, use the dull scissors on the fusible webbing that has paper backing as well). Remember that you're tracing your REVERSED design, since you're working on the BACK of your fabric.

If you must use your good scissors at this point to cut out the fabric, then you must, but the paper backing on the webbing will dull them...only do if if your "paper" scissors are too dull for anything else. Use your good scissors to neaten up your cuts later, when you've removed the backing.

So repeat this whole process (fuse webbing on a colored piece of fabric, trace a design piece, cut it out) for all the sections of your design.

You have all your design pieces. Cool. Print yourself a fresh version of the design, non-reversed. This will help you correctly place the pieces on the backing fabric. On your heat-safe surface, lay out your backing fabric. Peel the backing off the design pieces, the lay them out on the backing fabric, using the long dressmaker's pins to hold the pieces in place.

When you have everything set out to your satisfaction, fuse the pieces in place. Let everything cool down. Now you will flip your flag over and do the other side, remembering that while you're applying heat to the side you're working on, you're loosening the pieces on the off-side. Be careful, or you may end up with pieces that have slid out of place, or folded up by accident. If you're matching your design on both sides, you may want to leave some pins in the first side to give you some landmarks for placement.

When you're done with both sides and have let the flag cool down, you can begin applying fabric paint to the edges of the design. This will both seal the edges and keep them from unravelling, and will also give a little more adhesion. Just remember that the stuff takes about 6 hours to dry to a (light) touch, so don't smear work you've already done. You may have to work in sections.

If you're going to apply glitter, you need to work one color at a time. Apply the paint, then sprinkle glitter over the wet fabric paint. When the paint has dried, you can dump the excess glitter onto a piece of newspaper and then back into a jar for re-use. But make sure your paint is dry before you try moving the flag. This process is rather slow, but the results are visually spectacular, and I've produced pieces that fooled people into thinking I did machine embroidery around the applique pieces.

Okay, so your paint is dry. At this point, if you're not sewing fringe onto the flag, all you need to do is sew a couple tie-down pieces (short shoelaces are good) or apply some grommets along one edge of the flag to allow you to attach it to a flagpole. Then you're good to go.

If you're going to set grommets, you need to reinforce the fabric. You can easily do so by sewing a length of wide grosgrain ribbon onto the edge of the flag that will have the grommets. I've been using 1-1/2" wide ribbon, but if your eyelets/grommets are small, you can get away with narrower ribbon. I've got a bunch of striped ribbon in different colors, so I can make mine look decorative. You can either chose ribbon in a color that matches your flag background or in a contrasting color, as added decoration. If your flag is meant to have a sleeve for the flagpole to go through on one side, ribbon is a good way of reinforcing the seam and the required grommet/eyelet at the top to secure the flag on the pole.

If you're doing fringe, sew the fringe down BEFORE you put in grommets, it will save you broken sewing machine needles.

Fly your flag!

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