Hey friends! I’ve been wishing for a way to share some of my cooked up designs with you so my hubby and I decided to put up a new website where I can have my current patterns available AND have a way to get some of my original pattern designs available for you to make free of charge. I just love to think of crafty ideas and nothing makes me smile like when someone shares what they’ve made using one of those designs I dreamed up. 

Let’s get started. Today I have a Frankenstein Halloween banner to share with you. You can make as many Franks as you’d like in order to make the banner as short or as long as needed to fit the space you’re planning on hanging him. Don’t hesitate to get crazy and add your own touch to make it extra special! Maybe add some bats or pumpkins in between each Frankenstein or throw some Mrs. Frankensteins in the mix. Any of my crafty friends will tell you I rarely follow directions and most often throw my own twist in when sewing up any project. Just planting that seed for y’all. 

Here’s how to make Frank...  

** Directions specified are for ONE Frankenstein flag for your banner. Repeat the steps for each additional flag. You can get three flags out of each fat quarter. 

Supplies:

• Fat Quarter cotton fabric or ¼ yard

• Black felt (¼ yard or one sheet if not purchasing by the yard) 

• Gray felt (¼ yard or one sheet)

• Pellon Wonder Under

• Black Embroidery Floss with coordinating hand sewing needle 

• Double Fold bias Tape (one package)

Additional Supplies:

• Sewing Machine

• Straight Pins or Clips

• Scissors

• Frixion Pen or other water soluble marking tool 

• Iron/Ironing Board/Barrier cloth (cloth to use between the iron and the felt. Felt will melt or singe if direct heat is applied). 

   

Print and cut out your pattern (get the free pattern by joining the Stubbornly Crafty VIPs — see the end of this post).

On the smooth side of your Pellon Wonder Under trace two eyes and the hair piece with a regular pen or pencil.

Using your barrier fabric (just a large scrap of cotton fabric will do), adhere the Pellon to your black felt. Place your felt on the ironing board with the Wonder Under on top of it, glue side down (the bumpy side), then your barrier fabric on top. Press with your iron using the directions on your Wonder Under package. Cut out the pieces and set aside. 

Take your gray felt and your bolt pattern piece. Using your Frixion Pen trace two bolts, mirror image, and cut out. We will hit them with the iron a little later on when putting everything together and our pen marks will go away.

Trace two of your main flag (Frankenstein’s face piece) pattern on the back of your cotton fabric and two sets (so 4 total) of ears, mirror image. Cut out. Don’t worry about transferring the placement marking yet. We’ll do so a little later.  

 Pin your sets of ears right sides together and take to the sewing machine. Using a 1/8” seam allowance, sew around the perimeter of the round edge of each ear, backstitching at the beginning and the end, leaving the straight edge open. Turn each ear right side out and press (with such a small seam allowance, notching the fabric is not necessary). 

Let’s start off by sewing on Frank’s hair piece. Take the Pellon paper off the back of your hair piece (if you struggle getting it off, use a straight pin to lightly scratch the paper to help you peel it off), line the top straight edge of the hair up with the top edge of your main Frankenstein flag and center it (the hair piece is about ⅛” shorter on both sides). Both pieces should be right sides up. Press with your iron (make sure to use your barrier fabric in between) to adhere your hair to the main fabric. 

Take to your sewing machine and sew around your hair piece, starting and stopping at the top corner. You can backstitch at the beginning and end across the top straight edge (it’ll be hidden in your bias tape) or just tie your tails together at the top like I do.   

Ok, let’s get Frankenstein’s face in order. First, let’s sew on the eyes. To find the placement, I like to carefully cut out the eyes on my pattern. Then I lay the pattern over my main flag fabric pieces, right side up, and trace the eye hole cutouts using my Frixion Pen to draw the placement onto my fabric. 

Take the flag over to your ironing board. Take the Pellon paper off the back of your black felt eyes and place them over your eye markings. Use your barrier fabric and press to adhere the eyes in place. 

Take to your sewing machine and sew around the perimeter of each eye using a coordinating thread. 

When sewing around the eyes, stop at the same point you start and pull your thread tails through to the back to tie off. This will help to keep the front looking clean. 

Now grab your embroidery floss, hand-sewing needle, and a Frixion pen. Draw a mouth and a gruesome stitches mark on your Frankenstein. Add any other elements you’d like, too (like a nose or eyebrows). Cut a long piece of embroidery floss and thread it on your needle. Tie a knot at the end. 

Starting from one end of your drawn-on mouth, pull your needle through the fabric from back to front. Make each stitch approximately ¼” long, trying to keep them unified as you go. We will be doing a backstitch. 

Follow your mouth line. For your first stitch, stick the needle back up on the line approximately ¼” away from where your first stitch entered. 

Now bring your needle back up on the mouth line ¼” away from your first stitch.

Stick your needle back in the hole where your last stitch came up, making your threads meet. Repeat until you’ve stitched all across your mouth. Tie off your thread in the back. 

For the stitches scar, you’ll do the same thing for the baseline backstitching from one end to the other. Then make four or five horizontal stitch marks across before tying your thread off. To do so, bring your needle up from the back to the left of your baseline and then back down on the right of the line.

Now all we have left to do is assemble our Frankenstein flag. Grab your main pattern piece and transfer those placement marks onto Frankenstein’s face we just completed.

Grab your ears and bolts. For the ears you want the raw edge facing out. Line the top edge of each ear up with the top two placement lines. Have the raw edge of each ear protruding out a bit farther from the edge of the side of the flag and pin. Repeat with the bolts. Line the top edge of the bolt with the marking, making sure to follow the slant of your placement marking. Tack both ears and both bolts in place. After taking them down you can turn them out to the side to see if you like the placement. If not, pick your stitches and repeat. 

Next, grab your second flag piece and pin the two flag pieces, right sides together. Leave the top straight edge open. Use a ¼” seam allowance to sew from one edge around to the other side, making sure to back-stitch at both ends. 

Turn and press (use your barrier fabric so you don’t melt your felt). This step will also make all your Frixion Pen markings disappear. 

Repeat making as many Frankenstein flags as you’d like for your desired banner length. Each finished Frankenstein measures approximately 6.25” wide. I like to leave about 2-inches between each flag. I prefer at least a foot on each end for hanging. If you have a specific place you’d like the finished banner to hang, you can do the math to figure out how many flags to sew up.

CONSTRUCTING THE BANNER

Once you have all your Frankenstein flags done, lay them out how you’d like them to look on the banner. 

Fold your bias tape in half (lengthwise) and find the middle. Count how many Frankensteins you have and divide them by two. I have seven so I know that the fourth Frankenstein will go in the middle. If you have an even amount you’ll place the two middle ones on either side of your center point. 

Center your middle flag (the fourth Frankenstein in my layout for me) and put the top raw edge inside the bias tape and pin or clip. (I didn’t realize my striped bias tape wasn’t long enough so I switched to black. Whoops!) If you’ve never used bias tape before, there is one side that is a little longer than the other. That side goes in the back. It’s a touch longer to help you make sure you catch it while sewing everything together.  

Once you have the first flag clipped in place, repeat with all the flags to the right, making sure to leave two inches in between each flag as you place and clip them. Then do all the flags to the left starting with the one closest to the center. This helps you keep the ties on both ends even and everything centered. 

Once all your flags are placed and clipped, take to your sewing machine and sew from one end of the bias tape to the other, backstitching at the beginning and end. I’m a leftie so having the flags on the inside is easiest for me. 

And that’s it! Hang your fabulous banner and wait for the oohhs and ahhs and the friends asking, “Can you make me one too?” 

I’ve had suggestions on making him a pillow and a zipper pouch, too. I waited a little too close to Halloween to be whipping up those versions this year, but I think they are both fabulous ideas and the pattern could be hacked to make both. Tag me on Insta (@stubbornlycrafty and #scpatterns) so I can check out your banner if you whip one up and/or join the Stubbornly Crafty VIP Facebook group. Thanks for sewing along with me!

Happy Halloween!