Looking through my Halloween decorations, I came across these adorable felt bat and raffia decorative banners.

Large and Small Felt Bat Banner Black Felt Bat

You only need a few craft supplies to make these banners–black felt, natural raffia, black thread, cotton balls/polyester fiberfill for stuffing and a hot glue gun.

I made two bat banners in this manner.  One contained three large felt bat bodies and a second one two large and three small bat bodies.

Instructions for Making Felt Bat and Raffia Banners

I’m finding the ending project looks better if you keep it in an odd number of bats–three, five, seven, etc.

The first step is to make a large and small bat pattern out of paper.  See bat patterns below.  Fold pattern paper in half and trace.

Cut out bats from black felt and hand stitch together.  I used a smaller blanket stitch and black thread.

When there is about a 2-inch opening left, stuff the bat body with cotton balls or fiberfill and finish sewing.

Patterns for Large and Small Bats Attaching Bats with Raffia

The next step is to attach the bats together.

Count the number of bats you have and determine the number of raffia connections you need.

Gather 11-inch strands of raffia together and knot twice in the center.  Cut ends smooth and then hot glue the raffia to connect two bats together.  Continue until all bats are connected in a line.  See photograph.

Ending Raffia Bow

To finish ends make hanging loops.  Form raffia in a loop and knot.  Hot glue on to each end.

Final step is to make two large raffia bows.  Use 20-inch long strands of raffia and tie together into two bows.  Hot glue bows on both ends of the bat banner.  Trim ends if needed.

It is easier to see placement of the raffia end bows if you hang your bat banner up and then hot glue on.  I used a slightly side placement .

These bat banners makes great Halloween decorations for parties.  However, they can only be used indoors.

For an extra pop of color try using orange dyed raffia.

Large Bat and Raffia Banner

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