Feminist crafters, how about we make a MN banner to march behind?

[sethstarkaddersmackerel]

don't you think?

a big cloth one with beanpoles (and tassles at the corners, in manner of old trade union banners) carried by 2 people.

ideally it would be appliqued but could be painted instead.

I think we should do this because:

1. trade union style banners are a fabulous craft tradition that should be continued
2. doing one for Mumsnet would bring together old and new in a way that I think would make people look twice
3. lovely banners increase the visual appeal of a march and thus encourage people to look again and hopefully see the slogany ones
4. there were so many of us at MWR, probably 40-50 including children, surely a contingent that size needs a banner?

wdyt?

I have a few yards of very heavy calico from Boyes that I bought in error once. It was dead cheap (£2.50ish a yard or thereabouts) but does seem pretty strong. It's unbleached calico colour.

Christine - I think the slogan should be in a contrasting font; will dig around in Word and see if there is anything good.

Heavy calico would be good if it's not too heavy to carry! And unbleached would be ok I think, or you could dye it.

All sounds good - think calico would work fine. Holes in the Es is probably a good idea (I keep thinking of the eyeholes I was thinking of making in my MWR banner :o)

I would like to do a letter of the slogan (if there are any left!)

ooh, tell us more about this die-cutter!

it is going to be a lot of cutting out otherwise.

how big are the letters? aren't they a bit small?

Would the slogan be better painted with fabric paint? Easier than cutting out all those letters if it turns out the diecutter cuts them too small.

Just wanted to throw my hat in the ring again and say I'd like to do one. And it looks like Grumpla would too.

Are there people who are doing more than one letter each so we can both do one?

UmYeah and Grumpla - yes there are spare letters. I will update the list in a mo. I think that means that every single letter will be done by a different person which is great :)

Fantastic. Thanks!

-m - ENGELBERT
-u - dittany
-m - upsydaisysexstylist
-s - stayfrosty
-n - RumpelstiltskinsHat
-e - Grumpla
-t - Flamingo
-f - BoF
-e - GhostInTheBackOfYourHead
-m - LadyBiscuit
-i - SCALLOPS
-n - UmYeahLikeTotally
-i - SCALLOPS
-s - steamedtreaclesponge
-t - Flamingo
-s - Bucaneve

Please PM me your email address for me to send you your letter which you can print out onto A4 paper. If you would prefer a card template, PM me your postal address

:)

YAY!!!

I'm so excited. Finally unpacked my sewing machine this week can't wait to get cracking.

Are we all appliqueing? Are there rules?

Englebert - I am really jealous that you have a die-cutting machine. I want one now!

Hello
I am expecting a baby any second and thought it best not to commit to crafting, but now I see that costs are mentioned - can I contribute? How?

Proper banners irl make me a bit tearful. In a good way.

I thought it might be useful to repost sethstarkadder's earlier post with instructions for the letter makers.

You can use any colour, any fabric, check, flowery, plain, any material, cotton, wool, silk, nylon, etc. Please check for colourfastness beforehand in case we get rained on. If you would like to embellish further using embroidery, crazy patchwork, potato printing, Mooncup art, etc, that is also fine. If you would like to knit, felt, crochet, make Honiton lace, embroider on it, weave lentils, etc, that is fine too.

The letters will be applied using Bondaweb. I can get some and send you a bit if you PM me your address. The method is, you make a template of your letter then iron your fabric onto bondaweb, then draw round the template and cut out the bondaweb and fabric together. You don't need to hem it. You will then send me your letter backed with bondaweb which I will iron onto the banner, then zigzag round on the sewing machine.
If you are doing something like crochet which might not work very well with bondaweb, don't worry, I'll just sew it on any way that works.
(Then if I get zigzag fatigue halfway through I'll post it to someone else to take over)

Mooncup art?

Like using them to make little round prints?

Am moving house on Saturday and will finally be getting my sewing machine back now I have a place of my own. So excited! Now I just have to rifle through my massive fabric collection and see what would look best...

Maybe I could contribute to yours, treacle? Sew some (v easy) little YANBUs onto it or something? :o

I would love a pair of badges -

Feminism: YANBU

Patriarchy: YABVU

sorry, just going off on one there. Maybe if we do get badges (as per other thread) we could pin some on the banner too.