How to Make a Garden Flag

Garden flags are an easy way to add a pop of color to your yard, porch or front entrance, plus it’s a fun way to subtly say hello to visitors and neighbors from afar! Grab some Recycled Canvas in your favorite design and join Spoonflower Ambassador Meg Fleshman to learn the sewing steps towards a year-round collection of these festive flags.

Meg: Today I’m sharing a super quick tutorial for making your own custom garden flags, perfect for marking changing seasons, upcoming festivities, milestones and other celebratory events. Since it’s such a quick and beginner friendly project, it’s a great choice for a batch sewing project, giving you custom garden flags to decorate with all year long.

These DIY garden flags are made using Spoonflower’s Recycled Canvas, a woven fabric composed of 50% REPREVE® recycled fibers made from plastic bottles—10 bottles per yard/meter, in fact! It’s a durable fabric perfect for outdoor uses like custom flags.

With fall in full swing in the northern hemisphere and winter holidays close behind, these garden flags are a simple and weather resistant way to decorate, from welcoming trick or treaters to wishing visitors happy holidays. Plus, if you have access to a cutting machine and heat transfer vinyl, these garden flags can be further decorated with monograms, greetings, favorite sayings and other images for ultimate decor personalization!

Skill level:
Beginner

Begin by cutting a rectangle measuring 14.5” x 21” (37 x 53 cm). The finished flag will be 12.5” x 18” (31.75 x 45.75 cm).

For all-over prints, a rotary cutter and a ruler are super efficient. However, if you’re using a print with a design element you want placed a particular way on the flag, I recommend creating a template with paper or poster board to cut out the rectangle. Remember that the top of the flag will be folded over a total of 2” (5 cm) and the bottom will be folded over 1” (2.5 cm).

With wrong sides facing each other, press a 1/2” (1.3 cm) hem along both long edges. Fold the hem over one more time, again at 1/2” (1.3 cm) and press. Edge stitch both sides.

Exactly how we finished the side edges, press the bottom edge of the flag with a 1/2” (1.3 cm) hem, wrong sides facing. Fold another 1/2” (1.3 cm), press and edge stitch in place. You should now have a rectangle with three hemmed sides and the top still raw.

Just like the other sides, begin by pressing a 1/2” (1.3 cm) hem at the top, once again with wrong sides facing. To create the casing, fold the top edge but this time at 1.5” (3.8 cm), then edge stitch a final time.

You’re almost done! For the next and final step, give the garden flag a final press and slide it onto a garden flag holder! For extra customization, try adding a greeting or design using a cutting machine and some heat transfer vinyl.

Thanks so much for checking out this tutorial and be sure to tag your own DIY garden flags on Instagram with #spoonflower and #megmadesewing. Happy sewing!