No-Sew “First Day of School” + “Last Day of School” Reversible Banner DIY
Fall is officially here! Which means I’m finally getting around to some of those summer projects that were on my list — ha! I keep telling myself that it’s better late than never. Or, I can convince myself I am just very early for next school year, while patting myself on the back.
Today I made this no-sew reversible banner for celebrating the first and last days of school. I love homemade and handmade things, and I hope this banner is a visual that sticks in my children’s minds as they grow up and reflect back on their school years. We really are a family that celebrates together, and I hope when they are adults they look back and feel celebrated throughout their childhood — even on the “ordinary” days!
This banner was honestly so very easy and I didn’t sew one stitch! It took me about 2.5 hours total, but that was with a two year old who was trying to be very “helpful” the entire time. 🙂
Materials:
You’ll need various scraps of fabric, about 8″ by 8″ for each letter. I got my fabric at Spoonflower, and ordered the samples which are exactly that size. This was the most economic way for me to get the fabric I needed since I wanted such a large amount of variety. Their samples are $5 each, and by shopping this way I was able to get some of the fun school themed accent fabrics like the composition notebook and the notebook paper. You can also get a 1/2 yard of primary colors if you want less variety — or just use scraps from other projects.
I also ordered this $10 canvas banner on Amazon, and this $6 fabric glue.
How to Make a No-Sew Banner
Lay it out: I first mapped out which letters I wanted in which color. You could do this before you order your fabric, too. I wanted to avoid repeated fabrics showing up too close to each other, so I laid out all the squares and marked in the corner the letter they would eventually become.
Cut out the letters: This was the most time-intensive part of the process. I knew I wanted my letters to have a slightly “bubble” look to them, with very slightly rounded edges. So this part took quite a while until I felt like I had them all just right. I also replaced a few letters with school-themed symbols — like an apple for the letter a, and a pencil for the letter i.
One of my suggestions is that, once you have the hand of cutting out letters the way you like them (and not before!), double up your fabric so that when you cut out the letters for “day of school” you’re cutting two pieces of fabric for each letter. Twice as fast!
Glue them onto the banner: Using the fabric glue (I ended up moving outside because of the strong smell of the glue), I made a small outline along each of the outside edges of the back of the letter, flipped them over, and pressed them down. I wanted them to be slightly crooked, a little wonky, and they definitely ended up looking homemade — just the way I like it.
Add hanging feature: I want this banner to be so easy to pull out and hang on the first day of school, so I added some strips of striped fabric to each corner by cutting long strips (36″) that would hang the banner between our pantry door and the stair railing. I cut a tiny slit in the top corners of the banner backdrop and slipped the strips through. It hangs so nicely!
I love celebrating the landmark days of school and summer, and I think this banner will be a sweet addition to our celebration bin! I plan to make another for birthdays soon. If you end up making it, let me know how it turns out or tag me on Instagram!
