PENNANT FACTORY
Homemade pennants inspired by designs of the past
The jobEvery sports fan has a favorite player. Mine is Jackie Robinson. Number 42. The only player in Major League Baseball to have his number retired by every team. Even the Giants. That says something about how special this man truly was.... Pennants made for a single player are kind of special, too. "The Splendid Splinter." "The Yankee Clipper." "The Say Hey Kid." All were featured on their own pennant. If you love vintage pennants; and you have a childhood hero you grew up admiring, chances are someone made a pennant honoring that athlete. Perhaps you even had that pennant affixed to your bedroom wall when you were a kid? Not me. Jackie Robinson passed away long before I was born. I certainly knew of Robinson and his significance to the game; but, I was more caught up in the players that were then playing. Me, I'll tell you who my childhood hero was: Mike Piazza. Better yet--I'll even show you the very pennant I had hanging in my childhood bedroom.... Look, I'm not proud of it. Nothing against Piazza. He was a hell of a player. A hall of famer even. But, like many Dodger fans that remember the 1990s, I'm conflicted. Technically the Dodgers traded Piazza to the Florida Marlins; but, only after offering him a multi-year contract extension that would have made him the richest player in the game--which Piazza turned down. Regardless, Piazza's days in Dodger blue came to an end after less than six full seasons, leaving many fans singing the blues. It's also just an ugly pennant! But that's the 1990s for you. Had I the chance to go back in time, I'd have hung a Jackie Robinson pennant on my wall. Nothing against Piazza or contemporary athletes, I just have a new sense of appreciation for Robinson these days that I could not have enjoyed back in 1993. There were no less than four different Jackie Robinson pennants made during the 1940s and 50s. Here's three of them: These are all stunners, no question about it. But reproducing these designs would require screen printing due to the minute details each graphic requires. And, as of this moment, my production methods are limited. Thankfully, there's a fourth design! What makes it great is its simplicity: this pennant, unlike the above, was made to be copied.... One thing I appreciate about this version over the previous two is the ability to accurately date it. This pennant identifies Robinson by his position: "1st BASEMAN." Robinson was first called up to the big leagues in April of 1947; and, because the rest of the infield was full, he played first base that year only. So we know this pennant came from his rookie season in 1947. Which makes it even more special given that this was the same year he broke baseball's color barrier. And because all four of these Robinson pennants are highly collectible and thus beyond my price range, I have no choice but to reproduce this version if I ever hope to see it on my bedroom wall. The designWhoever made this 1947 Robinson pennant offered it in three colors: blue, red, and green. This was a fairly common practice back in the day. I decided to make mine using green felt. That's because my walls are already filled with plenty of blue pennants. That, and ... well, I ran out of blue felt. So green it was. As with prior reproductions featured on this site, I used linen to re-create the image of Jackie Robinson. It works well for this type of project. It absorbs ink much like paper. It absorbs paint nicely, too. And, it's fairly easy to cut--although it does tend to fray if you're not careful. It also accepts glue nicely without bleeding through the front side of the applique. Once I had my dimensions squared away, I first drew the image of Robinson in black ink on paper; then traced the image on to the linen. I then colored the image using water color pencils. To create a more uniform distribution of the colors, I rubbed the linen with another piece of felt. This caused the colors to look more airbrushed, which is likely how the original pennant maker would have colored the design during the manufacturing process. For the lettering, I used felt rather than linen. It cuts easier and results in crisp edges with no fraying. When I make a reproduction of a vintage pennant, I never use plain white fabric. It's too bright. Such vibrant colors would never have survived 70+ years of sunlight, airborne dust, etc. Instead, I use ivory or antique white to maintain that vintage look. Unfortunately, I ran out of antique white felt. (Sometimes it pays to check your materials before you visit the fabric store.) So I decided to try something new. Because I did have some bright white felt, I decided to try and distress it using coffee. And it worked well! Today, most felt available at your typical fabric store is 100% polyester. That makes it cheaper. It's also made from recycled plastic, like water bottles; so it's environmentally friendly, too. (It's also vegan, since it contains no animal products.) For the most part, this synthetic felt is just as good as the old 100% wool felt. I can only think of two minor drawbacks. First, synthetic felt has a slight shine to it when the light hits it. Second, synthetic felt doesn't absorb anything easily. Generally that's not a problem. But if you're trying to distress synthetic felt; or alter the color in anyway, synthetic felt will not absorb outside color applications easily. Fortunately, lighter colored synthetic felt does absorb dark colors; and my bright white letters absorbed dark coffee fairly well. The result was exactly what I was hoping for: a slight yellowing of the letters. After immersing each letter in a cup of joe, I let them dry. Once dry, it was time for gluing. I let the felt glue dry overnight and when I awoke the next day, I was done. The resultLook out Mike Piazza, there's a new star in town! Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2019 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son. All rights reserved. Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given. ♦♦
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AuthorIn 2018 I started a separate website called Pennant Fever dedicated to 20th century felt novelty manufacturers. It focuses on these companies' history, products, etc. Eventually, my interest in these businesses inspired me to start making my own pennants. THIS site you're currently viewing, Pennant Factory, is where I'll showcase some of the felt projects I've taken on. Most are reproductions of real pennants once for sale to the public. I've done my best to re-create the originals as authentically as possible based upon surviving photos, known dimensions, etc. Others are my original work, intended to look like the styles of yesteryear. Some turned out better than others. See for yourself. Enjoy! -KRB Projects:
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