Red Lion Banner

Materials

  • One yard deep red Chinese silk (or fabric of your choice)
  • yellow-gold thread
  • deep red thread
  • charcoal stick or charcoal pencil
  • fabric paint (I used Neopaque by Jacquard.) in Yellow Gold, Russet, and White
  • dowel
  • dowel caps
  • decorative cord

Tools

  • sewing machine (or lots of free time)
  • scissors
  • paintbrush

Step 1: Select Your Design
I was inspired by an illustration for a Narnian banner that was done by Weta Workshop. While it didn’t make it to the final film, It was delightful enough to reproduce.

Step 2: Transfer Your Design
Using a projector, a grid, or any other method of you choice, copy the design onto the fabric. With light-coloered fabrics, you can draw with charcoal. With darker fabrics, use white chalk so it’s easier to see.

Step 3: Sew Edges
Set your sewing machine to produce wide stitches close together in contrasting yellow thread. Sew along the edges of the banner that you marked with the charcoal. Remember to leave extra room at the top so you can fold over the tabs to attach the banner to the dowel later. Switch to red thread and flip over the tabs at the top of the banner. Sew in place.

Step 4: Trim Edges
Carefully trim excess fabric from around the edges of the stitching.
Step 5: Paint Base Coat

To get good coverage with a light color like yellow, lay down a layer of white paint first.

Step 6: Paint Yellow and Russet Tones
Once you have the white silhouette of the lion filled in, you can go back with the Yellow Gold and Russet colors. Use Russet around the edges and yellow in the center. It’s okay if the colors mix into each other some.

Step 7: Dry and Iron
Follow the directions on the paint containers to set the color. In my case, I had to let it dry for 24 hours, then iron it on both sides (Note: the rich red of the silk bled onto my ironing board, so take care).
Step 8: Finishing Touches

Put some decorative caps on a dowel that’s a bit wider than the banner itself. Hang the banner from your dowel and use decorative cord to display the banner from a hook on your wall, or from a tree for a party!
All done!

1 Comment

  1. hobbit_of_narnia

    Do you think we could have some reference pictures for this? 🙂 I would very much like to see what it’s supposed to look like!

    Reply

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