Make || DIY Roar! Banner

Zuzu’s room has been very neglected since moving here.  It is all function and no fun.  I have thought about doing a circus themed room based on this lovely Maileg toy the girls got for Christmas a couple years ago, but haven’t done much yet. The other day as I was watching Zuzu play with the toy inspiration hit and I deiced to go make a banner for her yet-to-be-decorated room.  It turned out really cute and I wanted to share the tutorial here.  It’s actually just a good ol’ fashioned freezer paper stencil used with my silhouette cutting machine. Of course you could use any words or lyrics you want, like my husband who looked at it and said, why didn’t you just put hear me roar?.  Um, hon-ney ‘hear me roar’ sure that’s a thing, but you’re going to hear me roar is the lyric to a catchy pop song which has a certain lil’ wink wink, nudge nudge, wry smile to it… ya dig?  He gets it now.

Anyway here we go.  Supplies:
-muslin fabric 2 pieces 14.5 inches x 12.5 inches
-freezer paper
-fabric paint and brush
-dowel
-sewing machine, silhouette die cut, iron and scissors
-jute twine

1.  First in your silhouette open a new file, choose a font (I used good ol’ fashioned ariel) and type your message.  Make sure it’s the right size and cut a piece of freezer paper to fit the size of your mat and cutting machine.  Run paper through your silhouette and make sure to keep all the little pieces of your letters.  You’ll need the holes in the middle of the letters… if that makes sense.
2.  Measure and cut your fabric.  Then find a point in the middle, and measure 4 inches on each side and draw a straight line from the middle to the 4 inch mark and cut your point.
3.  Center your words on the banner (just one banner…you’ll sew the two pieces together), use a ruler to measure on all sides to make sure it’s where you want it (the one mistake is that I wish I would have put my letters down lower…oh well).  Then iron on fabric (shiny side down) so that the paper sticks well to fabric.  Make sure you iron well!  You don’t want any fabric paint bleeding.
4.  Next go back and iron the middle of the letters with cutouts on the fabric–basically all the O’s, A’s, and R’s.  I just eyeballed it.  Again, make sure the shiny side is down so they’ll stick and go over all the letters well so that the edges will be crisp.
5.  Get painting supplies ready and make sure you have a surface you don’t mind the paint bleeding through on.
6.  Dab fabric paint over each letter well.
7.  Wait until the paint is dry and then go over again checking for any missed spots.  Glad I did this, there were lots of little spots I missed on the edges.
8.  Once paint is dry slowly peel the paper away.
9.  Yay!

Next steps:
1.  Pin two fabrics together, right sides together.  Sew sides and bottom leaving the top open.  (note if you have thicker fabric you may only need one piece of fabric).
2.  Cut corners before flipping inside out.
3.  Press seams.
4.  Top stitch sides and bottom.

Almost done…

1.  Get your dowel and fold the top over to make sure you have enough fabric to make loop.  Sew top down over the top.
2.  Mark and cut dowel to size.
3.  Get jute twine and tie on each end.  I secured the ends with hot glue.
4.  You’re done!