Birthday banner

At our house, there are four January birthdays!  So I like to decorate the house a little extra special.  This year I made a fabric birthday banner.  We used it all month, and I will pull it out in June... and again and again over the years.
I stuck with a gender-neutral rainbow palette.  I used bright, basic colors, but you could do this in any color theme.

To do this project you will need:
28 rectangles of fabric (6-1/2 inches by 8-1/2 inches)*
felt scraps... enough to cut out 26 letters
10 feet or more of twill binding or thick bias tape (or doubled up ribbon)
2 curtain rings with clips
a sewing machine that can do a straight stitch

*This is a great use for your collection of fat quarters and fabric remnants!

Iron all of the wrinkles and folds out of the fabric rectangles. 
Cut out the letters for HAPPY BIRTHDAY two times (for front and back).  I cut out the letters by hand, so I went for the multi-font look... unity in the variety.  The letters should be about 5 inches tall.  If you are making multi-colored letters, you may want to lay out your rectangles so you can coordinate your letters with their backgrounds.
Sew one letter onto each rectangle... there will be two blank rectangles.  Just a simple, straight stitch will do.
This is the tricky part... lay out the first set of letters spelling HAPPY BIRTHDAY (make sure to leave a blank rectangle between words).  Lay out the second set of letters below in this order YADHTRIB YPPAH (don't forget the blank rectangle in between words).  They should line up like this (I used the @ to show the blank space):

H A P P Y @ B I R T H D A Y
Y A D H T R I B @ Y P P A H

Sew the H rectangle to the Y rectangle with letters facing in, then flip inside out.  Sew the A to the A, letters facing in, flip inside out.  Repeat with remaining letters.  You will end up with HAPPY BIRTHDAY on both sides of your flags. 
Line up your flags with about 2 inches between each one.  Pin them in place on the bias tape or ribbon.    Double check to be sure your letters are in the right order on both sides.  Sew the flags in place with a straight stitch.
At each end of the ribbon or bias tape, sew a curtain ring (this makes hanging the banner much easier).
Hang your project and enjoy!