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 Meg Fleshman to learn the sewing steps towards a year-round collection of these festive flags.

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!

Fabric tip: You can do this project with either a fat quarter in a non-directional design or a tea towel design that wouldn’t be disrupted by folding over the edges.

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 — we can’t wait to see your finished garden flags! Happy sewing!