March Mantel, Part 2

I know I promised to post the rest of my latest mantel project.  This week has flown by and it feels as though I haven't been home at all (probably because I haven't been!).  I did find time last weekend to put together a fun little banner to hang under our mantel, though.

Recently I have decided that I want to learn how to sew and knit.  Who knows when I will actually invest in a sewing machine, though.  I will say, that if you know how to sew, it might make this project a little bit easier.  My way worked, but it was slightly frustrating at times.

I started by measuring out a piece of twine long enough to reach the span of the mantle, with a little extra room for slack.  Although I DON'T sew, I had some scraps of three different fabrics that I've been holding on to from some wall art I made with my sisters a couple of years ago.  They all had a black and white base, one had hints of green, one of beige and the last fabric had orange and pink accents.  I was pretty excited when I realized I finally had a use for some of the scraps since they would tie into the other colors I had already used.

Using the paper cutter I have for scrapbooking (I had no clue that it worked for fabric, too - what a great surprise!), I cut 13 triangles out of the fabric, alternating the patterns so that I would end up with the following design: (b=beige, o=orange, g=green) b-o-g-o x 3, ending with a final beige triangle.

The next step is where a sewing machine may come in handy.  My original plan was to just clip the fabric triangles to the twine using clothes pins.  I only had the full-sized pins, though, and they were so heavy that they wouldn't stay upright.  Plan B was using fabric glue.  I folded over the top edge of the triangle (assuming the triangle is upside down), and used three dots of glue to attach the edge to the back, creating a pocket to thread the twine through.

Once they were all threaded on, I hung the banner, spaced out all of the triangles, and finished it off by tying on additional scraps in simple knots in between some of the triangles as an accent.

Start to finish, it probably took me about an hour to pull this together.  It doesn't take much fabric if you have to go buy it - but is also a great use for any scraps you have left over.