Springfold Paper/All plans/Dimensional scenes/2026-09
Pennant Bunting: Sixteen Flags That Hang Straight
Bunting hangs badly for two reasons: the tape is one long strip that twists, and the pennants are cut with a 200 gsm card body but no spine. This string uses four 800 mm tape sections, one fold per pennant, and alternates the drop by 24 mm.
Cut pennants in a stack with a rotary cutter
Stack four A3 sheets of 200 gsm and cut the pennant shape with a rotary cutter against the 600 mm ruler. The rotary blade cuts straight through four layers of 200 gsm in one pass; scissors produce four slightly different triangles and on a 3.2 metre run the variation is obvious.
The pennant is an isosceles triangle 200 mm at the top and 184 mm deep. Cut a second batch 24 mm shorter for the alternate row — do not cut them from the same stack and trim afterwards, because trimming a stack never comes out even.
Fold one spine down each pennant and tab the top
One valley fold down the centre, fold the 10 mm tab behind, and stop. A pennant with two or three creases reads as crumpled from a distance; a single spine gives it just enough rigidity to hang flat without any wave.
The tab matters. A pennant glued flat to the tape pulls away at the corners within a week because the tape flexes and the card does not. A folded tab lets the tape move independently, and the pennant stays put.
Work in 800 mm sections, not one 3,200 mm strip
Cut the tape into four 800 mm sections and iron each one flat before attaching anything. A single 3,200 mm strip twists as you work along it: by the far end it has rotated 180° and every pennant is glued on at a different angle.
Mark the tape at 200 mm intervals with a pencil before you start gluing. Attaching pennants by eye produces a drift of 5–8 mm by the fourth one, and a run that is visibly uneven.
Join the sections with the pennants hiding the seams
Overlap two tape sections by 60 mm, glue, and position the joint so it sits directly behind a pennant. Four seams hidden behind four pennants is the difference between a string that looks made and a string that looks assembled.
Split rings go through the folded-back ends, and the last 200 mm at each end is left without a pennant so the string can be tied without bending one. Hang with a slight sag — 3.2 metres of bunting pulled tight will always show the twist in the tape.
Specification
| Pennants | 16 at 200 mm wide, 184 mm drop (second row 160 mm) |
|---|---|
| Tape | 4 × 800 mm sections, not one strip |
| Card | 200 gsm — under 160 gsm the pennants curl at the corners |
| Spacing | 200 mm pitch, so pennants touch but do not overlap |
| Working time | 45 minutes, and 20 of those are drying |
| Blank size | 3220 x 230 mm |
| Pieces | 16 |
| Assembled | 16 pennants over 3200 mm |
Fold order
| Line | Kind | Angle |
|---|---|---|
| Tape centre line, valley, full 3,200 mm | valley | 180° |
| Each pennant spine, valley — one fold, no more | valley | 170° |
| Pennant tab, valley, 10 mm, folded behind the tape | valley | 180° |
Cut list
- Sixteen pennants at 200 mm wide, 184 mm drop
- Tape in four 800 mm sections — not one 3,200 mm strip
- One 10 mm tab per pennant, cut with the pennant
- Alternate pennant heights cut 24 mm shorter for the second row
Check the plan against the object
What goes wrong
- Cutting pennants with scissors, which leaves sixteen slightly different triangles.
- Gluing pennants flat to the tape without a tab. They pull loose at the corners within a week.
- Working along one long strip, which twists and puts the pennants on at different angles.
Keep it clean
- Store rolled around a 100 mm tube, pennants outward. Folded, the corners take a set that no amount of hanging removes.
- Cotton tape shrinks about 2% on first wash — do not wash bunting, spot-clean it.
- Indoors only. 200 gsm card softens in damp air and the pennants start curling at the lower corners.
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