Australia doesn't go nearly as berserk on Valentine's Day as some other places in the world - our school has a fundraiser run by Year 12 towards their formal, involving the delivery of a (well, an artificial) rose or bud on the day for a small fee, but there isn't the wholesale gotta-give-everybody-I-like/love-a-greeting that can be the norm elsewhere.
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Valentine's Day also falls near to the start of the Australian school year. As I was thinking about how to present the library foyer to welcome our students, new and old, I put the two together. You'll see a certain pinkness among the books, to keep the colour theme - we reefed out pink books to put here, and love stories that mightn't be pink. Oh, and I do remember some of our Twilightery regulars selecting favourites to display here as well, a lot of which seemed to have the very welcoming cover colour of black... (and in case you wonder, our returns box is the same colour all the time, it just happens to work in with this rather nicely).
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The banner, however, is a new idea. You can buy banners for school libraries, on various themes, from various suppliers. I've always caught my breath at the prices. And wondered about the whole, if-it's-up-too-long-will-they-still-see-it. Some stuff in libraries does stay the same longer term, like our flags, but other things are better being changeable.
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So. Minimum budget, maximum effect (well, as maximum as possible). As is often the case with school libraries, you need some size for impact.
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Quilting fabrics come in a 110cm width - about 40 inches. Prices range from $5/metre at the bargain table end on up to shading $30 or more at the not-bargain end. I worked out that one 3m length would work on two of our pillars, one by the door and one near the top of the main stairs. Cut it in half, lengthways, and if you spent $5/metre, for $15 you have two potential banners. And repetition, which is more effective than a single banner.
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I have more library banners planned (watch this space!). For these, the fabric is a punk-influenced one, with swirly seventies heads (so fresh and modern, unless you remember them from the seventies!) with lovely pink skull and crossbones (I was avoiding Valentine cliche roses, I figured the kids would rather have something with a bit of attitude, and from the feedback, I guessed right). I don't plan to add applique if I can help it, but the heart seemed worth doing for these.
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I do want to avoid adding text, as that can look clunky and needs time to get right/straight/even/sewn; I want, if I can, to have the mood/meaning set by the fabric. That way, it's a simple hemming/sewing job, not elaborate.
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There are a bazillion themed quilting fabrics. Try your local quilt shop, or chain stores like Spotlight or Lincraft, or take a squizz online at places like http://www.equilter.com/. There are so many pictorial/conversational fabrics, you'll hardly know where to start. Get the right fabric, and it can do the work without need for applique or anything more fancy than straight machine stitching. Achievable by anyone with a sewing machine.
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The idea here is to make several banners to hang through the year, to celebrate/mark various events/occasions. And next year, whip 'em out and give them another airing. It's part of our goal of keeping the library a place where things change, where there's something different to see when you come in; having different bookmarks through the year is part of this game. Anything to intrigue, engage, make 'em interested to come and see (I hope).
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What you need: enough fabric to hang in your longer space, allowing an extra 15in/40cm for top and bottom hems. I buy 3m as it's a tad more than enough for ours and a nice round number. Our hangers - two hooks to screw into the wall, the rod and ends - came from Ikea, for $2.95. (Product name is Irja). Neutral thread - ecru vanishes into most colours. General sewing supplies including a sewing machine and iron. Dowel rod of reasonable diameter to weight the bottom of the banners.
Using these hangers, I made the banners with tab tops rather than a casing. If you are using different hangers and can do a casing, it's a tad faster and easy too. Your call.
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The instructions are written assuming basic sewing knowledge - if you're not sure about something, check with one of your lovely home eccies, if you're in a high school, or someone else you know who can sew. This really is simple sewing, though, so give it a try... Takes me about half an hour per banner, what with pressing. If you're not sure of your measurements, do the side hems and sew on the top hem and tabs, then hang your banner to get the length right. Maybe you could get some kids to help?
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How to: Across the WIDTH of your fabric, cut a 4in strip. Cut this into 4in squares. The way our banner hangers/hooks are set up, I've made three tab loops to hang the banner. Fold two opposite sides of each square over 1/4in and 1/4in again, press, sew down. With right sides together, sew the two raw edges together, then turn right side out. Press in half. You need three loops per banner, if you're doing it like ours.
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Cut the rest of the fabric in half along the LENGTH, to make two long pieces. Press in 1in on each side (I haven't bothered cutting off the selvedge edges) and then tuck in the raw edge to make a 1/2in doubled seam. Sew these down.
Press 4in over on the top of each banner, then tuck in the raw edge to create a 2in hem. Pin, for now. Pin three tabs across the top, one either end and one in the middle, with about 1in overlapping the top of the banner. Sew a rectangle, across the bottom hem, up the side, across the top (catching in the tabs) and down the other side.
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Screw the hooks to the wall, insert the hanging rod and hang your unhemmed banner. Mark where you want the bottom hem to be, then press each one up at this mark (our two banners are different lengths as the columns are different heights). Mark at 6 /12in further on from the bottom mark, then trim off excess fabric. Press over 1/4 in and sew along this seam. Press on the hem mark and pin up the hem. I used a wideish hem for weight/effect on the bottom - a narrow hem would look skimpy, imho.
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Note: the way I've constructed the bottom hem allows for a dowel to give the banner structure/help it hang straight. I decided to make a pocket rather than a sleeve, so the rod wouldn't fall out and trip anyone.
Sew up either side of the banner hem. Sew along the top, leaving a 3-4in gap at one end of the hem, to allow for slipping a dowel rod in and out (I'm using the same rods, moving them from banner to banner as we change them over).
Cut your dowel to size, bung it in the hem pocket, hang your banner, and feel smug!
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Applique: cut out your shape in paper. Trace it (reversed if it's not symmetrical) onto the paper side of fusible webbing (eg. Vliesofix, only a few dollars per metre at any fabric store). Cut out the shape, iron it onto the WRONG side of your chosen fabric, peel off the paper and iron this in place on your banner. Sew around the edges - if you have a blanket stitch on your machine, that's good, but a straight stitch just inside the edge of the shape will do the trick.
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So. How do you like them? The kids did! And this was only the first banner idea. More to come! I'll try to take some step by step photos of one being made for a future blog entry.
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One request: I've shared this original idea freely and hope you'll find it useful. If you do use it, or refer to it, or blog about it, please include a link back here to its original home on Skerricks to acknowledge its beginnings. Thanks! Ms.B.
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