The Unitarian Universalist denomination has “shared values” that are represented in this banner: Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, and Generosity, with Love at the center.

This post includes free downloadable patterns with instructions for assembling your own applique project. Learn more about the design process here. Or, for a quick overview of what all the symbols mean, check out the explainer sheet near the bottom of this post.

Materials for Appliqué Project

First, decide if you want your design to be 18″ wide or 24″ wide. (for either one, the length is flexible – for example, you could make a square banner or you could choose to center the 18×18 design on a 18×24 rectangle like I did.)

Then decide how you plan to assemble it. You could glue it together (I’ll include info below on my testing of this process, and why I didn’t end up using it) or use fusible interfacing to attach all the items, or you could fuse then sew/embroider them on for a true appliqué. The fusible interfacing method is fairly quick – I was watching movies while I did it, and I think I did the whole project start to finish in two rom-coms. For the appliqué, I worked on it off and on little bits at a time for weeks, so it’s hard to estimate total time. Here are the results side by side. The fused one looks a little more “crafty” and the appliquéd one more polished, I think. (Though part of the difference is also in the backing fabric – acrylic vs. wool felt.)

Fabric

You’ll need white or off-white felt for the background and the icons. The whiter backing fabric is this acrylic felt – you can get a 36×36 square for $12.90. (This is shown in the picture below.) Or you could choose a nice felted wool, like the right hand picture above. You could make an 18″ banner with a half yard (approx 26 x 32). If you want to do a 24″ banner, you’d need a half yard for the backing plus a “small piece” that’s 8 x 13 for the icons. Or just get 3/4 of a yard.

Colored felts – in red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. You’ll need them to be at least 6×7 inches for the smaller banner, or at least 8×11 for the larger banner. (I used wool felt. I bought them at my local shop that dyes their own wool – you can order from them online at Carriage Country Quilts. Their “Crayon Box Wool Bundle” with 8×13 pieces of all 6 colors is $33. It is similar to the collection on the left in my photo – all basic colors, no texture. (The bundle on the right I hand selected for particularly interesting colors and textures.)

Pink felt for heart. At least 6×6 for smaller banner, or 7×8.5 for large. If you’re ordering from Carriage Country, a “small piece” would be enough – just add a note asking them to choose a pink that looks nice with the rainbow bundle.

For a lower cost option, you could use these wool blend sheets for the petals (you get 28 different colors for $15. Choose 30×20 cm = 11.8×7.8″).

Notions

I recommend HeatNBond fusible interfacing. (Alternatives are Beacon Felt Glue, a glue gun or Aleene’s Tacky Glue) but I really prefer interfacing.) You’ll need one package for a small banner or 2 for large.

That’s all you’ll need if you’re just fusing it together. If you’d like to actually do appliqué stitching on all the elements, you’ll also need: One skein of embroidery floss in each of the 7 colors and one in white. For the applique, I use a blanket stitch. (There’s lots of tutorials online.)

If you want to hide your stitching on the back when you’re done, you’ll need: Backing fabric—could be the same as the background or could be something stiffer to help it hang well. Thread for stitching the background to the backing.

Patterns and Instructions

Here’s the pattern and full instructions for an 18×18 design.

Here’s the 24×24 option.

What does it all mean?

I created an “explainer sheet” to post with the banner that talks about UUA shared values. It includes a description of the icons, a mnemonic for remembering them (JETPIG) and a great JETPIG image from spaceMaverick.

Can you glue it?

I tested glueing it together. If you’re planning to glue the project together, be sure to test your glue on some small scrap pieces of felt before assembling the whole project!! Some glue will soak through felt or cause puckering and lead to a cheap-looking final product, and some glue won’t hold the pieces together. You could likely use a glue gun or Aleene’s Tacky Glue (my favorite all purpose glue!) and get good results, or try a specialty glue like Fabric Fusion or Beacon Felt Glue. I tested Beacon Felt and it looked good, but I ended up deciding that it was actually easier to use an iron-on fusible interfacing, and I also think the final result looked better. On these test runs, the glue is on the top in all three examples, and the fused is on the bottom – you can see that it looks crisper.

A note about colors:

In my first project, the yellow just didn’t have enough contrast with the white, so from a distance it’s hard to discern the chrysalis. For the second project, I over-dyed the yellow to make it a little more goldenrod. I used black tea for the dye. Black tea has tannins – a natural dye mordant that sets the color permanently. Just a few tea bags, brew for ten minutes, then soak the wool till you get the desired color.

In this picture, on the bottom is the off white I used for the icons. From left to right, you can see the colors of: the fabric I used in the first project. the original color of what I chose for the second project, that fabric after 15 or 20 minutes in a hot cup of tea, and the same fabric after a few hours in tea. I think I ended up using the one I had soaked for less time.

Making a JETPIG

I had enough colored felts left to make a stuffed JETPIG to go with the banner. (JETPIG is the mnemonic for remembering the values: Justice, Equity, Transformation, Pluralism, Interdependence, Generosity) Here’s a Time for All Ages about the JETPIG, and RE curricula, and there are songs too!

The top pig is made from this pattern. The results are cute, but it would not be my recommended pattern for two reasons: the directions are completely illegible, so you have to do a lot of thinking to figure out how it goes together, and I’m pretty dubious about copyright / whether the original artist chose to make their work available on that site. The bottom pig is from this Funky Friends pattern. There is a cost to it, but it was easy to use, and has cute results. Note: I had to split the belly part into two colors to be able to make it with the scraps I had remaining. I also considered this pattern – though I would have had to make it 50% smaller to be able to make it with the leftover fabric I had. The jetpacks were just two little drawstring bags that I figured out how to re-purpose.

Note: this post includes some Amazon affiliate links just to help you see recommended products – if you click through and buy something, I do get a small payment at no cost to you. However, I encourage you, when possible, to instead shop at local independent craft stores for your supplies. The felted wool all came from a store local to me, so I include links to them in case you’d like to support them, but you can also see if you have a great local shop of your own!

I hope you enjoy this project! I’d love to see your final results: email to janelled at live dot com.