Weddingbee Blog

One of the very first projects to be added to my DIY to-do list was these Yay! flags originally posted on Weddingbee by OG bee blogger Mrs. Lollipop.

Source

Looks simple enough, right? A little bit of muslin, some wood dowels, and—bam—instant Yay! flag! Yeah, that didn’t happen. For this girl, simple little Yay! flags involved seven yards of muslin, two mesh screens, three different inks, a sewing machine, some dowels, and lots of glitter and glue.Oh, but aren’t they pretty? In my opinion they are totally worth it. If you think so, too, keep reading for the step-by-step instructions on how to make your own.

The Supplies

• Muslin
• Screen-printing supplies or iron-on transfer paper and printer*
• Dressmaker sheers or rotary cutter
• Yardstick
• Self-healing mat
• Wood dowels
• Wood bead
• Wood glue
• Glitter
• Martha Stewart decoupage glue
• Optional for double-sided flags: quilting fabric*, sewing machine*, contrasting thread*

*not pictured

First take your muslin, sheers/rotary, mat, and ruler and cut your fabric down to size. Ours came out to be about 8 x 5 inches but, depending on the size of the text for your flags, yours may be smaller or larger. In order to make printing easier for us, we chose to cut a rectangle large enough for four flags first, then after our text and pattern was on our fabric, trim it down to our final size.

With your fabric cut, screen print your image using the method outlined in this post. If you don’t want to screen print your text, you can follow the instructions listed on this website for iron-on transfers.

If you choose to make your flags double sided like ours, you’ll need to sew both pieces together prior to attaching them to your dowel. This can become pretty repetitive; to reduce some of your work, I recommend you only stitch the three sides that will be visible when your flag is complete. For some crazy reason I chose to top stitch ours, which I strongly discourage. I seriously doubt our guests will notice the extra detail and, although it only took about 20 minutes to top stitch 80 flags, after sewing, turning, and pressing 80 flags I was kind of over it.

It’s now time to start assembling your sticks. Take your wood dowel and bead and dry-fit them together. If you find that it’s difficult to join them together, take a small X-Acto knife and carefully whittle away the excess wood on the inside of your bead.

Once your bead and dowel fit comfortably, dip the end of your dowel into your wood glue and join both pieces together.

Repeat until done and allow to dry overnight.

Once your dowels are dry, take your decoupage glue and apply a generous amount to the bead on top of your dowel. Sprinkle your glitter onto your newly applied glue and allow to dry overnight. Once completely dry, apply a second coat of glue to your dowel. This will seal in your glitter and prevent it from getting all over your guests.

We’re almost done! All that’s left is to attach your flag to your dowel with your decoupage glue. Take your dowel and cover a third of it with glue. With your dowel in hand, take your flag and gently roll the edge around the coated dowel and hold for 30 seconds.

If you find that the two layers of fabric won’t adhere to your dowel, simply run a thin layer of glue onto your fabric before joining your flag to the dowel. Allow to let dry, and stand back and admire your handy work!