Creative articles about sewing

How to sew a flag with shield

A holiday project: sew a flag. It seemed like a really challenging project! How to sew a flag with shield

How to sew a flag

When helping to sew for events, you arrive in different locations. Last year I was in the costumeteam for a Christmas event in a castle, in a village near Ypres (B). This year I thought that a worthy castle (including 3 towers!) needs a decent flag!

It seemed to have a 600 year old familyshield with 3 pairs of red stripes on a silver background and a French crown of a Marquis. I started to make plans…

The board and the count of the castle were as enthusiast as I was, that gave me energy to start the concrete elaboration. My BERNINA 710 was ready for it and so was I

But how to sew a flag with shield?

I needed a drawing of the shield. This one is made in Corel Draw to get an idea of the realistic proportions.

I printed the shield  in real size, for a flag of 1,90 m on 1,40 m.

Fabric choice: light grey and red lining fabric, silver and gold, red and pearl glitterfoil.

The silver and red lining fabric was stitched together in a long piece (front and back in one stitching, to be sure they were exactly equal).

After positioning and marking the flag on the grey background, I put the gold in the right place on the front and the back of the flag.

How to finish the crown on the flag with shield:

With temporary adhesive spray Mettler Web Bond I attached it to the grey fabric. Then I stitched along the crown with open embroidery foot 20. It is very comfortable to stitch along the outline.

The rest of the fabric was cut away:

The blanketstitch was useful to attach the golden fabric for the crown.

Glitterfoil gives a luxurious accent for the rubies, they were fixed with a zigzag stitch.

I embroidered the green emeralds with the BERNINA 700, because the green glitter foil was not available in the shop:

Around all outlines I stitched black wool (on both sides) with the braiding foot nr 21.

After the crown came the shield, with the same finishing as the crown. For the seams it was very useful to take the zigzag hemmer foot nr 66.

And in the end a synthetic ribbon fixes the rings for attaching to the flagpole.

This is what it became in the end. I like it a lot! It was difficult to let the flag go and hand it over to the count.

How to sew a flag

How to sew a flag

A successful project, I look forward to see it blow at a flagpole instead of my washing line…

Was this a useful tutorial on how to sew a flag with shield? Let me know!

Free sewing instructions: How to sew a flag

Difficulty level: Advanced
Time to Complete: A week or more
Used Material: gold fabric, lining fabric, metallic glitter foil, Mettler Web Bond temporary adhesive spray, silver fabric
Used Products:
BERNINA 700
BERNINA 700
BERNINA 710
BERNINA 710
BERNINA Embroidery Software 8
BERNINA Embroidery Software 8
Open Embroidery Foot #20
Open Embroidery Foot #20
Braiding Foot #21
Braiding Foot #21
Zigzag Hemmer #66
Zigzag Hemmer #66

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