Cooler weather is on the way, and with it thoughts of Hanukkah.

Get ready for a festive holiday with a dreidel pennant banner that you can hang not only this year, but for Hanukkah seasons to come.

The banner features dreidel-shaped pennants and the four letters of the dreidel: nun, gimmel, hey, and shin (If you’re in Israel, you can replace the shin with a pey). 

But my favorite detail might be the loops at the ends of the string to help hang the banner. 

The project uses letters from the 54 Hebrew Letters Pattern Set (available for immediate download on Etsy) and a free Dreidel Pennant Pattern PDF.

For fabric, I went for a cozy, hot-chocolate Hanukkah feeling with cotton fabrics in polka dots, candy stripes, and mini florals. Take the color and pattern choices where ever the idea of a festive Hanukkah takes you.

Materials

These instructions create a banner that’s about 54” long, but you can adjust the size by adding pennants or changing the length of the string.

Fabric

Choose lightweight to medium-weight fabrics. The links will take you to Amazon where you can find the fabrics and notions I used.

If you purchase supplies using the links below Sew Jewish may earn a commission, which will be used to help keep the website online.

• Pennants: ⅜ yd. At least 40″ wide OR six 10″ x 10″ fabric squares (I used a collection of 10″ x 10″ squares in a classic pattern mix of polka dots, stripes, and cottagey-florals.)
• Lining: ⅜ yd. At least 40″ wide Fabric for lining (I used Robert Kaufman’s Kona Cotton solid light gray blue.)
• Appliques: 12″ x 12″ piece of fabric OR equivalent amount of bits from your stash (Robert Kaufman Kona Cotton solid royal blue)
• String: Two 10″ x 10″ fabric squares OR equivalent amount to make a 60″-long strip of fabric 1 ¾” wide (I used cottagey-floral prints from the pennant fabric collection, above) 

Tip: Instead of making the string, you could substitute ⅜”-wide double fold bias tape, but when you sew, take care to keep the tape from stretching.

Notions

• Fusible web (I used HeatnBond Lite Iron-On Adhesive)
• Thread for finishing edges of appliques (optional)
• Thread for sewing the banners and string

Instructions

Print the patterns

Print the Dreidel Pennant Pattern PDF. Check the length guide, and if it doesn’t measure 1 inch (2.54cm), adjust your printer’s settings. Be sure the print size is set to “Actual size” and not “Fit to page” or “Fill.”

Using the 54 Hebrew Letters pattern set (Available for immediate download on Etsy), print the reverse versions of the four letter patterns adjusting your printer’s settings to resize the letters to 115% of their size. The resulting letters should be 3 ⅜” high. You’ll need the nun, gimmel, hey, and shin.

Cut out dreidel pennants

Use the Dreidel Pennant pattern to cut six pennants and six lining pieces.

Make the Hebrew letter appliques

Use the instructions that come with the iron-on web to create the letter appliques and iron them on to four of the pennants, using the guidelines on the pattern to help position the letters. Two of the pennants will not have letters.

Optional: Finished the edges of the appliques with zigzag stitches. The stitches don’t have to be close, satin stitches, you can use a longer, looser stitches.

Tip: You could get away with not finishing the edges if the appliques are well adhered to the banner, but if you want to wash the banner in the future finishing the edges is recommended.

Sew the pennants

With right sides together, sew the pennants to the linings along the side and bottom edges using a ¼” (6mm) seam allowance. Do not sew the top edge. 

Clip the corners, but stay about ⅛” (3mm) away from the stitches.

Turn the pennants right side out all the way to the seams. Press.

Make the string

Tip: This technique is similar to making double-fold bias tape, but instead of cutting the fabric along the bias we cut parallel to the fabric’s selvage edge because we want fabric strength rather than flexibility.

Cut the string fabric into 1 3/4″-wide (4.4cm) strips, cutting parallel to the selvage (finished edge of the fabric). If there’s no selvage, cut along the dimension that has the least stretch. 

Place the ends of two strips of fabric together at a right angle with right sides facing each other. Sew the strips together across the diagonal from corner to corner. Trim the seam allowance to ¼” (6mm).

Press open the seam allowance.

Continue sewing the strips together to make one strip at least 60″ (1.5m) long. 

Fold and press the strip along the middle with the wrong side toward the inside. Fold the raw edges in to meet the fold and press again to make a double-folded tape.

Attach the dreidel pennants to the string

Starting 8″-9″ from one end of the string, position the pennants 1 1/4″ (3,2cm) apart along the tape, with the letter pennants in the order shown in the photo below. Reading from right to left, this is the order of the letters on a dreidel, associated with the Hebrew phrase “Neis gadol hayah sham,” which means, “A great miracle happened there”. 

Place the pennants inside the fold of the tape, placing the top edges of the pennants against the middle fold of the tape.

Once you’ve pinned all the pennants in place, mark both ends of the tape 8” (20cm) from the edge of the closest pennant. Cut the ends of the tape at the 8″ (20cm) mark. Turn ¼” (6mm) of each end to the inside of the folded tape and pin.

Sew along the length of the tape, ⅛” (3mm) away from the inside folded edges, catching in the pennants as you sew. Press.

Sew the end loops

Fold 3/4″ (2cm) of each end of the tape to the back of the tape. Sew the across the width of tape ⅛” (3mm) from the inner fold to make a loop that’s about 5/8″ (1.6cm) wide. Press the stitching.

These loops come in super handy for hanging your banner. Hang them on existing hooks or features in your space, or thread a length of ribbon or string through them to help hang the banner. In the photo below you can see that I looped rustic ribbon through the loops and tied the ribbon to poles on the outdoor space.

Fabulous! Here’s a little Hanukkah music to get the party started: