Falcon Device Banner

My Barony has a series of banners which show the registered devices of the populace. I recently made this device for a friend:

A lot of the devices are made of felt, which works well as the banners get rolled up for transport and storage. I like working with felt because it doesn't fray.

I printed the heraldic device design from the computer and traced the design onto tracing paper. I built up the background colours from the appropriately shaped pieces of felt which were just whip stitched down.

The falcon was cut out from white felt and whipped down. I didn't cut the legs and feet out of felt because the pieces would be too small.

I did split stitch in a thicker cotton around the edge of the red felt and then couched down some gold cord as an accent. I used split and stem stitch to outline and do details on the bird. The eye was a shiny black bead. The legs and feet were worked in split stitch. I used some black thread as a highlight.

 

When the piece was finished, I ironed it from the back and whip stitched on a second piece of white felt for strength.