So, I know this isn't the best photo, but here it is...please disregard the horribly organized entertainment center back-drop. I used a pink, yellow, and orange striped fabric for the scallops. I chose scallops because I'm not a huge fan of the traditional triangle buntings. I chose a pink and yellow swirl fabric for the letters, and I learned so much about applique with these letters! First off, now that I see it in photos, I wish I would have used a bolder, more contrasting color for the letters, because when placed on the stripes, they don't photograph very well. Secondly, I chose a letter font with lots of curliness, which makes the cutting process so much more difficult...next time, straight letters for sure!
As for my process, I made my own scallop pattern using printer paper and a straight-edge. Then, I chose a font and printed each letter at size 300, giving me 3" letters (my scallops started at about 6"x6", finished at 5" all around). I cut out a scallop piece for the front and back, sewed them with right sides together and flipped them to right-sides out, finishing with the iron to get a crisp edge. I cut out each letter once from either the pink or yellow fabrics (alternating obviously), then put them on an interfacing and cut them out again. The interfacing allowed me to secure the letters to the striped fabric for easier embroidering. I embroidered each letter using a high-gloss white thread, but kept to a straight stitch. I finished the scallops by folding them over a 1/2" yellow rick-rack ribbon, using a larger 1" rick-rack ribbon between each word and at the start and end of the banner (just to give it extra sturdiness).
The project was a bit tedious, but went quickly and turned out really nice I think! I hope Olivia loves having a special tradition every year on her birthday!
Happy Crafting!
