Felt Team Spirit Banner

The soccer and volleyball seasons are coming to a close.  Two weekends ago, we had Spirit Day.  Everyone is supposed to dress in their team's colors and show team spirit.  I had some green hair chalk that we put in the girls' hair.  I found some crazy green striped socks to wear and we all wore green and black to represent each of the girls' teams.  I wanted to do something more.  When I was growing up, one of the moms always made the best team banners that they would put up on a PVC stand for each of the games.  I had wanted to do this in the past, but never got around to doing it.  Spirit Day was the perfect day to get motivated.  Of course, I came to this thought at 7pm the day before!  But when I decide to do a project, I pretty much just go for it!  

I ran to JoAnn's that night to buy felt.  I had two team banners to make, so I had to get busy!  Luckily for me, the bolts of felt were on sale.  I needed a piece about 36" x 28" for the background piece.  I then bought smaller pieces to use to cut out my letters and other decorations.  After cutting your background piece to size, fold about 3 inches of the top edge over to the back and stitch across to create a channel to slip a PVC pipe through.

I printed out block style letters in Word to spell out the team names.  I also searched for pictures of balls on the internet, as well as pictures of our team mascots.  I saved the images to a Word file.  When I went to print, I chose the Properties button on the Print screen.  Halfway down that page, you will find the Multi-page option.  This will allow you to print one image onto several pieces of paper, making it big enough for your banner.  I chose the 2x2 Poster option.  Click on Print Preview as well so you can make sure the image will print how you want.  After printing it out, cut out your image and tape the pieces together to create your pattern.  Use your pattern to trace your image onto your felt and cut them out.  I was able to see the black lines from the ball patterns through the white felt, so I traced them onto the felt with a black sharpie, coloring in the black sections of the soccer ball.

After tracing and cutting out all my felt letters, balls and mascots I figured out my layout.  Now is the time to try out what you like and figure out what looks best.  Then it's time to glue.  I used a tacky glue to keep all the pieces in place.  I was only planning on using these for the day, so I didn't think they would have to last long.  The team liked them so much, they requested to have the same team name and color for next season so we could continue to use the banner.  I may go back and stitch everything in place.  I could do it with a sewing machine, or just use a few hand sewn stitches instead.  

  

Look at my little soccer star!  She's a natural and has her Mom's talent.  Just don't tell her Dad I said that.  She is a quick thing too.  She looks happy here, but she can get quite pouty when someone takes the ball from her.  

After soccer, it was time to head inside to volleyball.  My daughter had her best game of the season and decided the green striped socks must be good luck.  Whatever works!

  

Despite the fact that I didn't start making these team banners until the last minute, I was pretty happy with how they came out.  They came together pretty quickly (although I was up until midnight).  I would just recommend planning ahead a bit.  If I make these for the season next year, I will definitely make a PVC stand that will hold the banners for all the games.