How to Make a No-Sew Easter Bunny Banner Out of a Dish Towel

 

Despite the huge piles of snow left at the bottom of our driveway, I am hopeful that spring is just around the corner. Until we start to get some actual spring-like weather outside, I am brightening up our home with lots of spring colors. I’ve added greenery and pink and yellow florals to every room on our main level. It just makes everything seem so much sunnier and happy.

 

We’re hosting Easter at our house this year, so I want to make sure the house is especially festive. I have a decent amount of spring décor, but wanted to add something fun to our entryway. As I was wandering the aisles of Target last week, these cute dish towels caught my eye. I like the idea of seasonal dish towels because they add a festive touch to my kitchen, but since you have to change them out so frequently, ours don’t end up getting displayed for very long. I ended up buying them anyways (what is it about Target that makes it so hard to pass up cute things even if you don’t need them?!) and figured I could at least put them out when we host my family.

Once I brought them home, I came up with a clever way to get more use out of them. I decided to make one into an Easter wall banner! Banners are a nice décor project because they come together quickly and unlike wood signs or framed art, they are easy to hang in lots of different spaces in the home because they are so lightweight.

 

The material the dishcloth is made of is perfect for a banner because it is thicker than the cotton fabric you typically get at the fabric store and it has a bit of stiffness to it, so you won’t need use more than one layer. I used a no-sew approach when making this banner, but you could also easily hem the raw edges with a sewing machine.

For this project you will need

-Patterned dish towel

-Hem adhesive (I used Heat n Bond super strength)

-Scissors

-Iron

-Wood dowel

– Twine or yarn

-Heat transfer vinyl in a coordinating color*

-Small bow or yarn pom-pom

-Glue gun

-Rotary cutter (optional)

-Fabric ruler (optional)

 

Step 1: Cut your towel

After you’ve ironed your dish towel, you need to cut it down to size. I use a cutting mat, fabric ruler, and rotary cutter, but you can use scissors if you don’t have these. I cut mine to 11 x 14.5 inches.

 

Step 2: Hem the raw edge

Once your towel is cut down to size, you will be left with 2 raw edges, one long edge and one short edge. You’ll need to hem these to help prevent fraying and to make a cleaner finished product. For right now, you just need to hem the long edge. We’ll hem the short edge in a later step. Pre-heat your iron according to package directions. Mine said to pre-heat to medium with no steam. Cut a length of hem adhesive exactly the same length as your long edge. You want to make the hem about the same size as the other edge, which is already sewn in place.

 

To prepare to add the hem adhesive, I find it’s easiest to first fold over your edge and run the iron along it to create crease. Once you’ve done that, unfold the hem and place the hem adhesive along the outer edge of the fabric. Now fold it back down where you’ve already creased it. Make sure that no hem adhesive is sticking out beyond the fabric, or it will stick to your iron (been there, done that!). Now hold your iron down over the entire fold and add a bit of pressure. Do this along the entire length of the fabric until your hem is held in place.

 

Step 3: Cut the pennant shape

To create a pennant shape, you need to make one more cut. Fold the fabric in half lengthwise, with the non-patterned sides together. With a ruler (or other straight edge, such as a book), make an angle from the bottom corner of the folded edge to outer edge where the 2 sides of the fabric meet. This will determine how sharp of an angle you have on the bottom of the pennant. I placed my ruler about 1.5-2 inches up the side. Cut along your ruler and then open your fabric. Ta-da! You have a pennant shape.

Step 4: Hem the last raw edges

We’re going to follow the same instructions to hem the final raw edges. Turn your fabric over so the non-patterned side is up. Taking one side of the angled fabric, fold it up about ¼ of an inch. Run your iron over this fold to create a crease. Now cut your hem adhesive the same length as this edge. Place it along the edge of the fabric and fold it back down. Hold your iron in place for a few seconds. Now repeat this with the other side of the angle. The banner is really coming together now!

Step 5: Create a casing for the dowel

To create a casing or tube to slide the dowel in, all you simply have to do is fold down the top of the banner. You want this to be a snug fit, but I always leave a little bit of room to slide the dowel in and out. Lay your dowel along the edge and fold the fabric over it, leaving a little extra space. Now slide your dowel out and run your iron over the edge to create a crease. Measure out enough hem adhesive to go across the width of the banner. Place the adhesive along the bottom edge of the fold. I trimmed mine in half to make sure that I didn’t make the casing too narrow for the dowel. Hold your iron over each section for a few seconds.

Step 6: Add the bunny design

Now it’s time to decorate your banner. I chose to add a cute bunny silhouette. I found a nice template here on the Simply Sprout website. I brought the image into my Silhouette Studio software and traced it. Then I cut the shape out onto heat transfer vinyl using my Silhouette Cameo. I can’t recommend my Silhouette Cameo enough! It makes so many of my crafty projects easier! Don’t have a cutting machine? No problemo! You can either print out the shape onto paper and trace it onto the back of heat transfer vinyl, or adhere fabric to iron-on adhesive, trace the bunny shape onto the paper backing, cut out the shape, and then iron the fabric onto your banner.

Step 7: Dress up your bunny

Here’s what my banner looks like so far. It would be totally fine to leave it as is, but I felt like it needed a finishing touch. I had a hard time deciding whether I should add a little yarn pom-pom as a tail or give him a dapper bowtie. In the end, I decided on the bowtie. If you have any hair bows that your kids aren’t using, this would be a great way to repurpose one. I didn’t have any spare ones, so I quickly whipped up one using some ribbon I had on hand. I used my glue gun to add a small dab of glue to the back of my bow and stuck it on the banner. Almost finished!

Step 8: Tie on twine

Now that the banner is completely decorated, all that’s left to do is tie on some twine to the ends of the dowels. I tie a double knot on each end to make sure it won’t come undone. Now go hang it up and admire your beautiful work!

 

Did you make an Easter banner in time for the holiday? If so, I’d love to see it! Share it on Instagram and be sure to tag me @The_Northern_Creative

*If you don’t want to use heat transfer vinyl, you could also adhere fabric to iron-on adhesive and cut the bunny shape out of this.

xoxo

Stephanie