This is just one way to sew a set of flags. Most flagmakers have their own style, their own quirks, and their own preferences for creating and weighting flags. I encourage you to experiemtn and find what works best for you.
Fabric choices:
Silk
My favorite material to use for flags is silk. Silk silk silk, I can’t get enough of it. It’s lightweight, strong, and can be dyed with UV colors. It also has the property that it can be ripped to the desired size and doesn’t need to be hemmed.
Silk comes in many different styles, colors, and weights. The type i use most often is Habotai Silk, 8 mumme (abbreviated “mm”, pronounced “mummy”). white, 45″ wide.
Changing the varibles gives you many great choices:
For fabric weight, 5mm, 8mm, and 10mm all work well.
For fabric width, you might try 36″, 45″, 55″ or perhaps even larger
For fabric types, there’s Habotai, Crepe de Chine, and many other choices
There are many color choices, but I always use white so I can dye it.
Poly-China silk
This is polyester. If anyone tells you “poly china” silk is actually silk, smack em.
Lame’
Ok, first make your fabric panels
– Silk flags – This means dying the silk and ripping it to size.
Sewing non-silk flags
We’ll first cover materials other than silk, because you can make a set of flags from many different fabrics.
The primary difference in making non-silk flags is that you’ll probably need to hem the edges to keep them from fraying.
– Gather your materials
Of course, you’ll need fabric for two flags. Here I’m using a neon yellow poly-china silk. The fabric is polyester, and comes in many colors, including four neon ones. Some stores call this “curtain liner”.
The fabric comes in 45″ bolts. Buying two yards of fabic gets me a pair of 36″x45″ flags. Of course, you can make your flags as large or as small as you like.
