s No-Sew Fabric Banner (Silhouette Fabric Lettering Tutorial) - The Kim Six Fix
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No-Sew Fabric Banner (Silhouette Fabric Lettering Tutorial)

No Sew Fabric Banner
Today I am sharing a tutorial on the Easter banner I used on my mantle this year.

I constructed it using my Silhouette although you could make a similar banner without one (the way I made my “He Is Risen” banner), but the silhouette does make it a lot easier (and faster.)  This is also my submission project for April's Silhouette Challenge.  There are dozens of wonderful projects linked up to this blog hop and I would encourage you to check them out (they are linked at the bottom of this post.)
I couldn’t find any really good online tutorials on working with fused fabric lettering, so I thought I would share how I got it to work.  There are plenty of tutorials out there on transferring large shapes, but keeping letters aligned and small details like the ‘dot’ on the letter i is much more complicated.  I wanted to transfer the fabric letters without distorting them or hand placing them one at a time.  

You also could use vinyl for a project like this, but I love the look (and unlimited color and pattern choices) of fabric.
Fabric wording banner
The first thing I did was decide on what I wanted the banner to say and which font I wanted.
Remember when cutting out fabric, the thinner or more detailed the cuts are, the more likely it is to fray.  You want your shapes to be relatively ‘meaty.’
Cutting banner
To conserve fabric (and interfacing) I squeezed the phrase into the smallest space possible.  That is why the “Here” is upside down and angled.

Next I fused sewable interfacing (I used Silhouette brand but after doing this with other projects I realized you could use Steam-A-Seam or Wonder Under as well.) The Silhouette brand is NOT permanent and won’t hold up to washing, but it is fine for something like a banner.
Iron on fusible interfacing
To cut the fabric, you need to remove the paper backing and stick the fabric (glue side down) to the cutting mat:
Silhouette fabric interfacing
I also have a separate blade specifically for ONLY fabric:
Silhouette fabric blade
Silhouette sells a ‘fabric blade’ which is actually just like any other replacement blade only the housing is blue so you can tell it apart from the others.  You also could just mark one of your blades and use it exclusively for cutting fabric.  The fact the housing is blue doesn’t matter at all.

Here is what the fabric looks like after the cutting:
Silhouette fabric cutting
 Next I ‘weeded’ out all the fabric I didn’t need:
Silhouette cutting fabric letters
Here is what was leftover when it was completely weeded:
Cutting out applique letters
You are left with your letters stuck down to the cutting mat (you can see I lost my capital C and would have to re-cut that one):
Fabric applique words
Now you could hand peel them up, one by one and fuse them down to the banner, but that sounds like a nightmare.  Instead I used some dollar store shelf paper to transfer the letters. To do this I stuck the shelf liner down on top of the letters and then peeled it up with the letters attached. A few letters didn’t want to come up and I was able to get them started using a pin to lift them off the cutting mat:
Transfer with shelf liner
You can NOT use standard vinyl transfer paper or even contact paper because they aren't sticky enough.  You need it to be really sticky in order to life the glue coated fabric off the cutting mat.


Once I had the words stuck down to the shelf paper I cut them apart and stuck them down to the background fabric:
Fabric applique transfer
Flip the fabric to the reverse size and fuse down the letters with an iron (be careful to not press for too long, you don’t want to melt the shelf liner):
Ironing fabric applique
Make sure you allow the fabric to cool (so the glue on the fusible interfacing solidifies) and then peel the shelf liner off:
Fabric transfer paper
Once the shelf liner has been removed, you can press the letters down again without fear of melting anything.

Once I had the words fused to the backing fabric, I was able to cut it down to the size I wanted:
Cutting down fabric
I cut out burlap panels slightly larger than the yellow fabric and a rectangle of fusible web (in this case Wonder Under) the same size as the yellow fabric.
Banner fusible interfacing
I fused the yellow panel onto the burlap using an iron:
Fusible interfacing on banner
Here are the completed panels:
Here comes peter cottontail banner
Now all the hard work is done.  To give them a more finished edge, I frayed the edges of the burlap:
Frayed burlap
I took the finished panels and strung them onto some clothesline left over from my clothesline eggs:
Woven clothesline on banner
The little ties in between the panels are nothing more than fabric strips I cut out of the same green fabric I used for the words, tied in bundles along the clothesline:
Cutting fabric strips
And the finished banner:
Fabric letter banner
Using this technique you could make it say anything “Happy Birthday” “Merry Christmas” “Lordy, lordy, looks who’s 40!”  The possibilities are endless.


Now go and enjoy all the other entries in this month's challenge: Spring Cleaning - Custom Canisters I Love Paris In the Springtime Etching for Sping - Mug Personalization for the April Silhouette Challenge WHEELY excited about spring No-Sew Fabric & Burlap Peter Cottontail Banner Narwhals, plus friends Gold Fern Easter Eggs Mr and Mrs Easter Egg Head Easter Bunny Plate Welcome Spring - A Sign From Tile Paper Flowers Wall Art DIY: Bunny-Stamped Goodie Bags for Easter Inspirational Window Now We Have Everything Nursery Art Spring' and Flowers Paper Banner Glitter Jars with a Happy, Hoppy Bunny Made with the Silhouette + Free Cut File! Mother's Day Wreath Decorate A Watering Can With Vinyl! April Showers Sketch Pen Printable Spring Wreath Burlap Garden Flag with Heat Transfer Vinyl Pretty Little Herb Pots Peter Cottontail Door Hanger Spring Has Sprung Spring Has Sprung - Subway Art Bloom And Grow Sunflower Bouquet for Teacher Appreciation Sharpie Easter Eggs Tear Open Easter Egg Cards Look what's Blooming! ~ Silhouette Challenge Everblooming Paper Bouquet Silhouette Challenge: Spring Polish Swap Card [B] is for Bloom: Scrap Lumber Flower Vases Tulip Time - Fridge Magnets Neon Paper Pinwheels {tutorial} A Happy Spring Card Sketching Just Got Easier! Spring Bunny Baskets Bird Nerd Easter Eggs Easter Peeps Treats with {FREE} Printables and Cut File Garden Bench Update
1. Dream a Little Bigger // 2. So Much Better With Age // 3. Adventures in All Things Food // 4. Creative Carnival // 5. The Kim Six Fix // 6. feto soap // 7. One Dog Woof // 8. The Experimental Home // 9. From Wine to Whine // 10. Architecture of a Mom // 11. Grey Luster Girl // 12. Minted Strawberry // 13. Designed Decor // 14. Tried & True // 15. Silhouette School // 16. Bringing Creativity 2 Life // 17. Weekend Craft // 18. Practically Functional // 19. Please Excuse My Craftermath... // 20. McCall Manor // 21. unOriginal Mom // 22. Creative Ramblings // 23. A Tossed Salad Life // 24. A Glimpse Into Barb's Life // 25. Kate's Paper Creations // 26. Simply Kelly Designs // 27. Cutesy Crafts // 28. Persia Lou // 29. Whats Next Ma // 30. Two Purple Couches // 31. The Frill of Life // 32. Nearly Handmade // 33. Get Silvered // 34. Ginger Snap Crafts // 35. Life After Laundry // 36. The Sensory Emporium // 37. Monograms & Cake // 38. The Thinking Closet // 39. My Paper Craze // 40. Chicken Scratch NY

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17 comments :

  1. Super cute! Love the quote and this may inspire me to try cutting with fabric (I haven't tried that with my silhouette yet!) Awesome!

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  2. Nice trick! I hadn't thought about how I would go transferring fabric bits, but now I know where to go! Definitely pinning this for future uses.

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  3. What a sweet banner. I cut fabric on my cricut before I had the silhouette but I can't wait to cut fabric with my silhouette. P.S. - I LOVE the little eggs strung on the mirror too So sweet!

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  4. I love this, Kim! It looks great on the fence and on the mantel!

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  5. Michelle from Weekend CraftApril 14, 2014 at 8:20 PM

    How gorgeous! Love your mantle. This makes me so ready for easter! Simple and beautiful couldn't have done it better myself! I may need to try fabric soon!

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  6. I was wondering if this was possible with the silhouette! Thanks for sharing! I'm going to have to give this a shot!

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  7. I love the texture that the fabric letters give! Nice work!

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  8. I need this Kim! I bought a Silhouette at Christmas and have yet to sit down and figure it out. Thanks for the tutorial.

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  9. Brooke @ Inside-Out DesignApril 16, 2014 at 5:11 PM

    This is super cute!

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  10. I did the same thing.. Kept it in the box for almost 2 months before I was brave enough to try it.. but now I regret not 'going for it' sooner!

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  11. It was one of the 'selling points' when I got one, that I could cut fabric, but I wanted to see how far I could push it!

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  12. Aww, thanks so much. Those are just doilies from the dollar store!

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  13. I didn't think about it either until I was sitting there with the letters on my mat and wondering to myself: "what am I supposed to do now?!" hahaha!

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  14. It opens up a whole new world! There are so many things you can do with fabric!

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  15. I love the layered look. Great project.

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  16. Super cute!! Pinned!

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