Gothic Halloween Pennant Banner

Ooooh – It’s October!! Time to decorate for Halloween!!

(I know everyone has been already doing it for the last month – but for me October 1st is the magical day. Out come the crows and the candlesticks and that weird meshy stuff that looks like a shroud.

Last year I had a blast decorating my Mantel with my Spooky Lady Mirror, but now I have this giant heavy antique white mirror screwed into the wall over the mantel. And it is NOT coming down.
So Spooky Lady is residing on a different wall this year – and I get to change some things around.

I decided to start by making my First. Ever. Pennant. Banner. (Gasp!) I know. I’m a pennant virgin. I had never really come up with an idea I liked. Until now.

This year we’re going Gothic for Halloween. A little Glam combined with a little Spooky. Scary Chic maybe? lol.

Here’s the Pennant!!

If you’ve been around since last year, you’ll remember that I’m not so much into the orange for Halloween. Give me Black and Pink every time. :)

I decided to only show you the banner – because I don’t want you to know what will be on the mantel yet.
You have to wait until next week for the Fabulous Wreath and the Full Mantel Reveal!

Ready for the Tutorial??
This one is super easy. You could even do the whole thing with no sewing if you want!

You’ll need:
1/4 Yard White Fabric
Same amount of Freezer Paper
Inkjet Printer
Ribbon (I used Black Velvet)
1/4 Yard Black silky fabric for bows
Scraps of lace
2 Pendants
Pattern (click here to download)

Start by cutting your white fabric just a little larger than a sheet of 8 x 11 paper. You’ll need four pieces. Cut Freezer paper to the same size.
Iron the shiny side of the Freezer paper to the fabric.

Trim the fabric and freezer paper so that it is 8 1/2″ x 11″. This will make the edges nice and clean so you don’t have any problems printing on it.
If you don’t have a paper cutter, a piece of card stock works great as a pattern.

Print the Pennant pieces onto your fabric. Lay the fabric into your printer one piece at a time.
Sometimes you get little smudges on your fabric. Fortunately this didn’t overlap my pennant piece – but if it happens to you, just reprint the piece.

Cut out your pennants before you take off the Freezer paper. It will be a lot easier!
Leave a little bit of the white on top to sew to the ribbon.

Run your fingernail along the edge of the pennant to fray it just a bit. You don’t want it looking too “new”.

Sew (or glue) your pennants to a piece of ribbon – so the top edge doesn’t show over the top of the ribbon.
The skull pennants should be at each end. Also – make sure you spell BEWARE right. lol. I double checked a couple of times.

Out of the black, silky fabric, cut two pieces about 4 1/2″ x 44. Tie each strip into a large bow.
Wrap the center of the bow with some lace and sew a fun pendant to hang below the knot.
(I found these at Walmart.)

Fray up the edges of your bows too.

Turn the bow over to the back side. Sew the edge of the pennant ribbon to the top of the back of one side of the bow.
Repeat with the other bow and the other side of the pennant.
You don’t have to have super neat stitches for this. Obviously.

To hang the pennant, I actually hot-glued the bows to the mantel. I added drops of glue to each side of the bows and waited until they cooled just a little bit.
While it was still warm, I held the bow to the mantel. It made a kind of little sticky bump, but it doesn’t hurt the paint.
(Though if your glue is super hot it might. Don’t send me mean emails if you end up with blotches.)

And that’s it!! Easy peasy right??

I love how the glitzy little pennants look on the bows.

I thought about adding some ribbons between the pennants, but with the mantel decorations I didn’t want it to be much.

I can’t wait to show you the fun wreath that goes with this next week!
***Update – You can see the Gothic Halloween Wreath here and the whole Halloween mantel here!

What do you think?? I’d love to know!

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