Pin banners are typically made of thin sublimation-printed polyester or a light canvas material and can come in many shapes but are typically pentagons or pennants. The pin banners from my shop typically share the following qualities:
- Thin ‘satin-drill’ polyester material
- Sublimation printed design
- Heat seal on edges of fabric
- Diecut on the ‘bottom’ of the design only
The following can be done for general care of the item without any risk of damaging the materials:
- Iron on low-heat or ‘polyester’ setting – try not to steam or spray with water before heating as it may shrink the threads if it gets too hot
- Roll tightly for storage
- Spot clean for small stains
Pin banners can be displayed without pins but if you plan to add pins or pin-back buttons, here is a guide on how to safely add them without damaging or pulling the threads with the posts of a pin.
Here are some examples of ‘pulled’ threads. This happens when the point of the post you are trying to push through the fabric has not ‘seated’ through a cross section. The way to avoid this is to move the fabric around the point of the post until there’s less resistance for it to go through the fabric. But we’ll go over each step from start to finish to decorate your pin banner.
After selecting the pins for your banner, try to plan out the space before committing to pressing the pin into the fabric. When you are ready to do so, lay the banner on a soft but flat surface, this can be a piece of foam or something similar but a carpeted floor works just as well. Use one hand to place the pin posts and position the pin on the front of the banner and use your other hand to meet where the posts meet the fabric on the blank side. Be careful not to press the post into your finger but use your finger on the back side of the banner to move the fabric softly left and right and up and down of the pin posts one at a time until the post ‘seats’ and moves through the fabric without resistance. Once you have added all pins, fold the banner to the side starting from the bottom to add all of your post backings.
When you are done, lift the banner slowly to ensure there are no loose pins and that none of the pins pull too heavily on the fabric (typically will not happen unless you have a massive pin with few post backings).
If everything is placed how you prefer, you’re all done! You can hang your banner on a painter’s nail or a command hook or other. Do note that holes left by pins can be smoothed over to be less visible but they do not ‘heal’ or go away.
