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How to make your own "Yay!" celebratory flags, by Michele
Posted by offbeatshrie · OMG OBT

16 Nov 2009

IMG_5880
Offbeat Megan snagged this awesome idea straight outta the OBT and we both knew it would be a fab DIY post. It's so super-duper unique and, well… celebratory!

Michele (congrats on the recent wedding!) put this simple how-to together to share with all you OBB lovelies. You can customize them any way you want… so get printin'! (and show us pics of your own special celebratory flags!)

"Yay!" Celebratory Flags
By Michele

I made these “Yay” flags for our wedding, intending for people to wave them for us as we walked away after the ceremony. They ended up being such an integral part of the evening, with everyone waving and shouting “YAY” every time we walked by! And since I added our names and the date to the back of them, they also served as the only favor we had for our guests. It is a quick and easy project- I hope you enjoy it!

Materials

  • Wooden dowels – I used 1/8” diameter dowels.
  • Construction paper – I used some old, sun faded construction paper in warm tones to go with the color scheme for the wedding.
  • Some way to help you layout your design, computer or otherwise – I used Photoshop, but you could essentially use any program you are comfortable with.
  • Craft glue
  • Sewing machine set with a zipper footIMG_6041


Step 1:

Cut dowels to desired length. I started with 36” long dowels and needed 100 flags for our ceremony. So, I bought 25 dowels, cut them evenly into 9” lengths, and ended up with 100 exactly. I used a pair of wire cutters to cut them, which was very easy to do, and left a minor crunched edge to the ends- but no splintered or messy edges. For a cleaner look, you can saw them.

layout1 copyStep 2:
Layout your design. I organized the page in 2 columns of 3 boxes to get a total of 6 flags per page. I added the text to each box, as well as crop marks to make cutting easier. Write your “yay” text (or “woot”, “yippie”, etc..) to fit into each box nicely, and justify toward the right. I chose six different fonts to write “Yay” in.

Step 3:

If you wish, make another page for the text on the back. Ours has our names and the date of the wedding. Use the same template as the front, and this time justify your text to the left so it doesn’t interfere with the edge you are going to sew.IMG_6043

Step 4:

Print your pages and cut your flags along your crop marks. I used a paper cutter and actually cut off the crop marks so they wouldn’t be seen.

Step 5:

At this point, set up everything in front of you to streamline your assembly: sewing machine, dowels, glue and flags.

Step 6:
Take a dowel and one of your flags. Place the flag, "Yay" side down, at the top edge of your dowel. With your thumbs, curl the edge around the dowel, leaving about .5” past the dowel. This will leave you with enough room to sew.IMG_5882

Step 7:

Put a dab or two of glue on the dowel and place into the fold you just made with your thumbs. Place directly onto your sewing machine and stitch down the length of your flag. The zipper foot will allow you to sew right along the edge of the dowel. When your are finished sewing the length, trim the threads close to the paper.. and voila! You have your first “Yay” flag.
IMG_5881

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Comments on "How to make your own "Yay!" celebratory flags, by Michele"
12 responses to this entry · Leave a comment · Comments feed (RSS 2.0)

1

offbeat_shrie
November 16th, 2009 · 7:45 PM · #

Yay! What a great tutorial… I'm glad this went up. Thanks Michele for helping me out with putting this one together!

2

Liz C
November 16th, 2009 · 9:16 PM · #

I made these for my wedding last week and people LOVED them! I used the thicker bamboo skewers (probably about 1/8" dia) and clipped off the pointy ends with those pet nail clippers.

Michele gets a gold OBT star for this amazing idea!

3

mikeygirl
November 16th, 2009 · 9:59 PM · #

Yay! Thanks again Shrie and congratulations Liz! I'll keep my eye out for pics of your flags :]

4

ashilleong
November 17th, 2009 · 12:26 AM · #

I did them the same way you did.

5

Heidi
November 17th, 2009 · 4:40 AM · #

these are really neat. i find myself saying "yay" way too much lately. might as well put it on an invite i guess.

http://oliveobserver.blogspot.com

6

Jamie
November 17th, 2009 · 8:03 PM · #

I don't know if it matters, but what kind of needle did you use in your sewing machine to sew through the paper?

7

Brent
November 17th, 2009 · 10:32 PM · #

Wow, sewing a pole hem in the paper looks great. I have never seen this before, but I would definitely do something like this at my wedding.

8

mikeygirl
November 18th, 2009 · 12:15 AM · #

I used a regular all-purpose sewing needle. I've sewed paper lots of times, for various art projects. It probably dulls the tip a bit, but I haven't noticed difficulty in sewing since the flags. I think I would change it if I were going to sew a lightweight fabric like silk or chiffon, but it's been fine otherwise.

9

OffbeatAriel
November 19th, 2009 · 6:10 PM · #

Seems like with the wood in there, they'd be more than recyclable — they'd be down right compostable!

10

Rachel
November 19th, 2009 · 9:45 PM · #

These are super cute, thanks so much! I'll be linking to your how-to.

11

Alexa
November 19th, 2009 · 5:36 PM · #

anyone know if you can recycle these after the wedding, with the dowels and all? I LOVE this idea, but I'm afraid of all the paper that would be wasted

12

Paige
December 28th, 2009 · 3:15 AM · #

This is great! No one seems to allow rice, birdseed, sparklers, etc anymore (and for good reasons.) Flags are a neat replacement! Thanks.

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