How to Make a Cross Stitch Banner

I grew up Catholic, and I remember when we did our first communion each child had a banner with their name and some religious symbols or other things on it, and for some reason that’s what this cross stitch banner project reminded me of.

Your cross stitch banner doesn’t have to go on display in a church or anywhere else out in public. Depending on the content of the stitching you’re turning into a banner, it would be super cute in a kid’s bedroom or playroom, or even in your office.

Hannah Hand Makes used a large stitchalong project to make her banner. You could do that (I love the idea of a Halloween or Christmas themed stitchalong being hung in this way as part of your decorations), or you could use a sampler project or even combine a bunch of patterns of similar sizes together to make a piece big enough to be a banner.

And really, just because this one is kind of large doesn’t mean yours has to be. A little cross stitch banner with a child’s name on it would be adorable hanging from their doorknob or above the light switch in their room. And talking of having a banner in your office, I envision a merit badge style banner with a bit of snark (like: survived another meeting that should have been an email).

Clearly there are a lot of different options here, and the instructions Hannah gives for how to make a banner out of a cross stitch project will work no matter what size project you’re working on. A giant temperature cross stitch? A bunting full of minis? Your wedding announcement or baby’s birth announcement? All are fair game.

Check out the tutorial for how to make your own cross stitch banner at Hannah Hand Makes.

[Photo: Hannah Hand Makes]

Next Pattern:

35+ Sunflower Cross Stitch Patterns

A while back I made a little rainbow cross stitch pattern and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with it, so I turned it into a patch. My idea was that it could be used on a jacket or backpack, or you could add a pin to the back and wear it temporarily on a shirt or elsewhere.

But what if you want to make your design more permanent? Is it possible to turn a piece of cross stitch into an iron-on design?

It turns out yes, it is, and Sirious Stitches has done it so I didn’t have to try to figure it out on my own.

The way they did it was by using HeatnBond, an iron-on adhesive that attaches fabrics without sewing. There was still sewing involved to finish the edges of the cross stitch fabric and make it look like a purchased patch. The post shows how to do this by hand or with your sewing machine. (I just did blanket stitch edging on mine, which doesn’t look like a “real” patch but is also a lot faster.)

Once you have the patch prepared it’s a pretty easy matter of using the fusible adhesive to the back of the patch so you can then iron it onto whatever jacket, pair of jeans, bag or whatever else you might want to add it to.

I guess I’m a little paranoid about the washability of cross stitch projects, though you could hand wash anything with an iron-on cross stitch patch as you might need to with a purchased iron-on patch, anyway. But this does look really cool and is a great option if you know you want to permanently add a cross stitch patch to a garment of bag.

Get the full tutorial over at Sirious Stitches. Would you add an iron-on cross stitch patch to something? I’d love to hear what you would use this technique for!

[Photo: Sirious Stitches]

Next Pattern:

Have you read?