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How To Make A Birthday Sash

I’m a big fan of birthday celebrations. I don’t know what it is, but birthdays give me an adrenaline rush. I fancy the concept of celebrating one’s birth and having friends and loved ones around to make you feel special. This made me consider a career in birthday planning, but somewhere along the line, I guess life happened. 

The sash is my favorite birthday item. Once I have my sash on, my birthday cake sitting pretty, and decorations hanging, it makes me feel like that moment revolves around me alone.

You might be wondering how to make your very own sash? How much fabric do you need to make a sash? How many ways can a sash be made? 

You can make a birthday sash by cutting a piece of fabric to your desired size, trim or tape the edges to give a very neat appearance, and bind both edges together by stitching them together or using pins. 

How To Make A Birthday Sash?

The answer above is pretty concise, so, in the rest of the article, I will give you the answers to these questions in their entirety.

How Much Fabric Do You Need To Make A Sash

The amount of fabric you’d need for your sash depends on your height and how long you want the sash to be. The conventional width is 5 inches, but the length can be whatever you want. 

For me, I like my sash firm and moderate-sized, so I use the entire length of my measuring tape. This sits somewhere around 60 inches for it to go around my body without any difficulty. As I mentioned earlier, one factor that determines the size of your sash is your height and your preference. 

Other factors that determines the amount of fabric you’d need for your sash includes: 

Your Birthday Outfit

Tight dresses and free dresses do not feel the same when you wear them. If you’re wearing a body con dress for your birthday, the length of your sash would not be as long as wearing a flowing skirt. 

Once you have a picture of your birthday outfit in your head, it would be easy to determine how much fabric you’d be needing for your sash. I encourage you to simulate how the sash would be on your dress. Simply take a dress belt, a measuring tape, or anything that feels like a sash, and put it around you. 

Doing this would give you an idea of how the sash should look on your dress. 

The Fabric Choice

Most people use linen or satin for their birthday sash. Others might use cotton or cashmere for it. It all depends on preference. For me, I’m good with any fabric. All I care about is how the sash compliments my dress and makes me feel special on my birthday. 

If you choose linen or satin, the length would not be the same as cotton or cashmere because linen doesn’t stretch, unlike cotton that might expand when you wear it. 

The point here is, when choosing a sash design, you have to pay attention to the material choice before determining how much fabric you’d be needing. Nothing hurts more than planning everything in your head without paying attention to the fabric choice than ending up with a sash that can barely go around your chest. 

The Type Of Sash 

This is another critical factor determining how much fabric you’d be needing when making your birthday sash. Is it a no-sew sash? A clip-on sash? A sash that can be tied? Whichever you go with, ensure that you keep in mind that it affects the length of fabric needed. 

I’d be talking about these sash types in the latter part of this article, so if you want to understand the process involved in making the above sash types, you’d have to stay with me till the end. 

In summary, you need only about 2-3 yards of fabric to make a birthday sash. 

How To Make A Birthday Sash

Now that you have a clear picture of what a sash is and how to get the exact fabric needed to make a sash, below is a detailed process for making a birthday sash. 

Keep in mind that you don’t have to be a guru in cloth making or art designs. All you need is a basic knowledge of how scissors function, how to use a measurement tape, and being able to navigate your way around safety pins or a thread and needle. 

Without any delay, here’s how to make a regular birthday sash: 

  1. Get your design template: if you’re not the artistic type, you might need to check online for design templates that capture what you have in mind. This way, you won’t have to bother about creating a design from scratch. 
  1. Choose a fabric that works for you: the regular fabric size you’d be needing is just 2 or 3 yards depending on how free you want it to be. Ensure that the width of the fabric is not more than 5 inches. 
  1. Pick a color that compliments your outfit: a sash, if rightly chosen, can take your outfit from just ok to gorgeous. If you don’t know much about colors, just go with neutral shades. You can never go wrong with black, white, or grey. 
  1. Tape the edges: the reason for this is to make the sash edges look nice and neat. If you’re using a ribbon or satin, you might not need to do this because their edges are usually neat. 
  1. Fix the Birthday Letters: a sash is incomplete without the birthday letters. If there’s no “The Celebrant”, “It’s My Birthday”, or “I’m A Year Older”, what then is the point of the birthday sash? 

Remember that it is perfectly normal not to have design skills. If you can’t do it yourself, get someone to handle the design part. 

  1. Stitch both edges of the sash together: this is where the finishing of the sash is determined by the type of sash you’re going with. If you’re going with the traditional birthday sash, simply stitch both edges to join it neatly. 

If you’re going with a no-sew sash, you might only need to clip the edges together with a safety pin. 

How Do You Make A No Sew Sash

The process involved in making a no-sew sash is similar to the regular birthday sash listed above. The peculiar thing about the no-sew sash is you wouldn’t need to make any stitches. The no-sew sash is perfect for those who do not have any knowledge of sewing. 

To achieve the no-sew sash, here are a few things to note: 

  • The chosen fabric must have neat edges. If you aren’t stitching, I’d recommend a material that would not require any edge taping. A ribbon should do just fine. 
  • To join the edges together, you could simply use a safety pin. This way, it takes off the pressure of needing someone to help with the stitching. 
  • The no-sew sash is not firmly attached so everything you’d be doing while you wear your sash has to be done with care. You don’t want your sash to drop every single time you move your body. 

How Do You Make A Paper Sash

You can make a paper sash by following the exact sash making process discussed in detail earlier. From my experience, paper sashes are made for one-time use only because of material choice and durability. 

A paper sash can’t be compared to linen, cotton, or even ribbon sash. If you’re not all about durability, the paper sash might just be a suitable choice for you.

It is the easiest sash to make but also the trickiest when it comes to placement and functionality. Every move you make while wearing the paper sash is a delicate one because the paper material makes it prone to easy damage. 

If you plan to celebrate your birthday by dancing, I recommend you go with the linen or ribbon sash instead of the paper sash because they’re durable and can endure long hours of hyperactivity. 

How Do You Pin A Birthday Sash 

Once you’ve followed the processes involved in making the sash, you would have to attach both edges to make it nice and firm. This is where the pin comes in. It allows you to hold the sash together for the desired period temporarily. 

Unlike other sash types, this allows you to pin and unpin at will. If you want to extend your sash’s size, all you need to do is take out the pin, adjust it to your preferred size and refix the pin. It is as simple as that. 

You have to be careful when inserting the pin on your birthday sash because it might seem like an effortless task, but if you insert it the wrong way, it might hurt you. I highly recommend using a safety pin because it has an enclosed layer that keeps the sharp edges in. 

Conclusion

If you’ve never considered having a sash for your birthday, this might be the year to consider it. Since this item has the power to make you feel special, why not put it on the list of your birthday necessities? It is your birthday, remember? Everything has to be perfect. 

How To Make A Birthday Sash
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