Reflect on the holiday with
this seasonal banner.

• 25-inch-long wooden dowel
• 2 1-inch-square wooden blocks
• Fabric paint in fine-tipped squeeze bottles: black and bronze
• Flat paintbrush
• 7/8 yard of black felt
• 1 yard of Kente cloth
• 1/8 yard of broadcloth: red, black, green, and gold
• 1/2 yard of brown broadcloth
• 1-1/2 yards of fusible webbing
• Tracing paper
• Hotmelt adhesive and glue gun
• 1 yard of black cord

1. Download the free patterns for this project. (This requires Adobe Acrobat software.)

Kwanzaa Banner patterns

Download Adobe Acrobat

2. Paint dowel. Squeeze out puddles of black and bronze fabric paint. Thin the paint with water to a cream consistency. Paint the wooden dowel black and the end blocks bronze. Set them aside to dry.

3. Make banner. From the black felt, cut a 24-x26-inch piece. Fold one of the shorter sides over 2 inches. Cut a 24-x1/4-inch strip of webbing, and fuse the edge of the felt to the back of the banner to make an opening for the dowel, following the manufacturer's instructions.

4. Make border. Cut four 4-1/2x26-inch strips of Kente cloth for the border. Fuse the top and bottom borders onto the banner, and then fuse the side borders, folding approximately 2 inches of fabric to the back of the felt to finish the edges. Cut an opening at the top of the side panels for the dowel to slide through.

5. Make letters and kinara. Trace the patterns onto tracing paper; cut them out. Iron adhesive onto the brown, red, black, green, and gold fabrics. From the brown fabric, trace and cut one kinara, two P's, four A's, and one each of the remaining letters. Note: Be sure the letters face backwards when you trace them onto the paper-backed webbing. From the red fabric, cut three candles. From the green fabric, cut three candles. From the black fabric, cut one candle, and from the yellow fabric, cut seven flames. Fuse all the pieces in place on the banner.

6. Outline candles. Outline the black candle and the kinara with bronze fabric paint, squeezing it from the bottle to create a fine line. Outline the remaining candles and the letters with black fabric paint in the same manner.

7. Add dowel and hanging cord. Slip the dowel through the top opening of the banner. Glue the blocks onto the ends of the dowel. Tie the black cord to each end of the dowel for a hanger.