Funky Rustic Americana Flags

In honor of Memorial Day, I busted out these funky flags made out ribbon and fabric!  SO EASY to make and they look fantastic!  Muriel and I are both hyper critical of our stuff, but even I can't be too critical because I really do LOVE these things!  The first flag is about 2 1/2 feet X 3 feet.

To start, all you need is a stick or dowel. I dug out a piece of driftwood Muriel and I collected on the Oregon coast last winter. Gather a bunch of ribbon, lace and fabric strips in reds, creams, whites, and golds. Of course you can use whatever you like.  Muriel and I were on the lookout for the perfect "star" fabric and she just happened to find it in the form of a shirt she found in a thrift store for under $3 bucks.  

First I cut a length of ribbon for the top, which equaled the length of the stick.  I then sewed a piece of star fabric to the ribbon.  From there, I sewed my strips of trimmings across the top of the ribbon. Because a lot of the ribbon and lace was sheer, I overlapped a lot of pieces to give the overall effect a fuller look.  

After sewing all the strips to the main upper ribbon, I added a smaller ribbon to the bottom of the star fabric and then sewed ribbon strips and fabric in the same way as the top ribbon.  You just have to eyeball the length of the ribbon.  It doesn't have to be perfect.  After that's all done, just attach the ribbon to the stick.  The first large flag I made, I put these little eyelet screws in the wood then used quilting thread to run through the eyelet and the ribbon.  In the second, smaller flag I didn't use the eyelets and just sewed the ribbon to the stick which actually is a lot less hassle than the eyelets.

The finished size on this little guy is about 8 X 10

In keeping with my flag theme, I decided to play around a little with some fabric strips and ribbon by sewing them together for a whole new look.   I think this would look really cute put in a rustic frame.

So everybody, get your Americana groove on and gather all your fun trimmings and start sewing them together!  Would love to see what you come up with.