Patriotic Door Hanging – From Materials I Already Had

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I wanted to jazz up my front door with something patriotic and fun. Yep, I just used the term “jazzed up”. It is getting wild here. Once again, I only had a few hours while baby napped, so I got creative with materials I already had. A general idea had been floating around in my head for a while. My original idea was to paint a flag on a rectangular semi-flat burlap pillow, hung with a metal clothes hanger. Then, my idea evolved, and in my opinion, improved, as I started working on it.

First, I found the hanger I wanted to use. I liked that it was red and bendable. In my pre-thoughts, I pictured using the hanger part of the hanger to hang on the door, but as I stared at the hanger, I decided it would like better to bend the flat part and use that instead. I would keep the rest of the hanger intact, and just hide it inside of the door hanging.

Second, I cut out 2 rectangle pieces of burlap that I had leftover from a different project and ironed it.

Third, I started to have second thoughts about my design as I considered more ideas. I decided to draw out different ideas and pick my favorite. My 6-year-old had a different favorite, but she came around to my pick after she saw the finished project. She hung out with me while I did everything. I love my cute assistant. (She is writing a list of subjects she will teach at her school.)

Next, I sewed 3 edges of the rectangles together and then stuffed with pillow fluff.

After it was stuffed, I got the hanger in place and sewed the final edge, careful to go over the hanger, but as close as possible. The rest of the hanger inside will help hold the top in place.

Then, it was ready to decorate!  Because burlap is so porous, I gave it a coating of clear matte spray paint first. This way the colored paint will sit on top of the spray paint and not just absorb into the burlap.

It didn’t take very long to dry in this summer heat! I was excited to start painting it. I poured my paints into little containers and dove right in. I’m really not much of a perfectionist with this stuff, so I just went for it. I added the white stars as an after-thought. It took a few coats of the blue and red and less coats of the white. I started off with dry-brushing the letters and then filled it in with more paint.

When I was done with the design, I added little ribbons to be cutesy. Not sure about the ribbons, but I’ll leave them on for now.

I love how it looks on my door!! Just what my door needed to ring in the Fourth of July with a little red, white, and blue style.

You should make one! I think a tighter weave of the burlap might be nice if you need to buy that. It takes very little fabric. It bugs my husband that there are more than 13 stripes. I wasn’t going for a literal flag, but do what you must. What do you think? I think you should just go for it!

From my home to yours,
Mary