step 1. Find a photo of the banner you wan to replicate or design your own, my design was loosely based on this
step 2. Go your local fabric store and pick out the coloured fabric you need (I decided to use a fake silk type of material because I thought it suited Slytherin)Make sure you also buy some felt to sew on the back to make it stable and unpliable so that the material won't move when you hand stitch it -Make sure you pick up some dowel too this is essential
step 3. Decide on a shape and cut it out (I went for a simple shield type shape but a rectangle or even a forked end would have worked)
-cut out your backing felt at the same time
step 4. sew your felt to your back ground fabric on a sewing machine -make sure you leave room at the top to fold over the fabric and make a tube (with openings so don't sew them shut) to put your dowel through later
step 5. Cut out animal (you probably want to draw this on in chalk I cut mine out free hand because I didn't have any WARNING: do not use permanent marker or a fine line to draw on your fabric if you make a mistake and draw in too far you can't get it off!)
step 6 (Optional). Design a background and cut out necessary pieces-sew them on (I made a choice not to add a background- mainly because I couldn't decide on one but also because it would take more time)
step 7. Pin your animal on to the background and hand stitch that sucker on (I recommend an audiobook, like say Harry Potter for this time, or a movie because it takes a while)
step 8. Add embellishments to your animal- I gave my snake an eye, fangs and a tongue. These can be added in a number of ways you can cut out some fabric and sew it on, then add extra embroidery later (eye), use a button, draw on to the fabric (maybe some scales but try this out first on a separate piece) or you can straight embroider on to the animal (fangs and tongue)
-NOTE: it becomes progressively harder to work on small bit of silk like material because it frays and falls away and your stitches are left there
step 9. Draw on and cut out your lettering WARNING: do not draw on the back of the material because your letters will come out backwards (I know it seems a stupid thing to say but you wouldn't believe how many times I've done that with out thinking)
step 10. sew on your letters, more hand stitching - this is quite a labour intensive project (probably best done on the holidays rather than when you should be doing homework)
step 11. okay this step can done in several ways but I'm only going to go through the 2 that I think will be easiest
NOTE: I didn't actually use either of these techniques
a) get your dowel and cut a small slit into one end of it. Tie your string on to that end using the slit to keep it in place. Thread it through the tube at the top of your banner. Pull the string out the top and knot it
b) get your dowel and drill a small hole in each (make sure they go the same way) tread your dowel through the tube you made earlier. Then thread the string through the holes and tie it
Your Done :D Now you can turn an ordinary place into a Hogwarts Common Room!
note: this took me about 12 hours to complete
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