Make your own flag for any occasion

One of the greatest joys of the warmer weather is being able to take girls camping

Maybe you’re planning a camp away, or are coming to one of our big activity centre events.

Or maybe you’re going to a festival, or camping with your family. Whatever you’re up to, here’s an activity you can do to make sure your camping area stands out in any occasion.

Which one is our tent?

Leaders Hannah and Clare from the 19th Woodford Brownies have some tips to keep your campsite safe and visible for girls. ‘Start by taking the girls on a boundary walk, which depending on their age, you can combine with a bug walk or other game’, says Hannah. ‘That way the girls understand the site or your camp boundaries’. Once boundaries are created and understood, Hannah recommends working with the girls to create their own camp rules together for the different areas of your site. ‘Frame them as positives rather than negatives, for example – “walk calmly” rather than “don’t run”.’ For the night-time Clare recommends using glow in the dark tent pegs, or sticking reflective tape on wooden tent pegs for when the girls use torches. ‘Try a solar light outside the first aider’s tent so it’s easy to find. Wind-up lamps are also a great shout - girls absolutely love being on winding up duty'. For the more budget-conscious, Hannah and Clare recommend recycling used milk bottles. ‘You can fill them up with water and place a few glow sticks inside them – it’s an easy way for leaders and girls to mark their tents.'

Making a flag

If you’re taking girls to a festival or larger gathering, flags (if allowed) can be useful to identify your group from afar. Girlguiding has a longstanding history of units and patrols crafting their own flags. Follow the steps below to craft your own unit flag.

You will need:

Different coloured fabrics in varying sizes
Measuring tape
Coloured threads, pins, and needle
Scissors
Pencil and paper
Baking parchment
Iron
Bondaweb (hemming web could be used too). This is to stick different fabrics together.
18mm diameter dowel pole

Optional

Sewing machine
Buttons, ribbon, or any other materials you’d like to use to decorate the flag

Spend some time designing your flag. Think about the colours of your unit and which shape would meet your needs best. What’s your background colour?

You may also want a second piece, so the back of your flag is a different colour, or different colour fabrics for letters and images.

Measure and cut your main piece of fabric. Our recommended size would be 42” (107cm) height x 50” (127cm) width for a rectangular flag.

You could also make a pennant, which is triangle shaped and longer than it is wide. Take some time to consider its size - the bigger it is, the heavier it’ll be to carry or keep upright.

Before moving onto decorating your flag, you need to create a side channel to insert the pole. Measure 3” (7.5cm) from the edge on the longer side and fold over. Secure fabric in place using pins.

Sew down the edge and across the top, leaving the bottom edge of the side channel open for the pole.

Now that you’ve got your “canvas” ready, what would you like your flag to say? Think about the size of the letters and spacing - it should be as big as your cloth allows.

Using pen and paper, trace and cut each of the letters and any other logos or emblems you may want to include. They’ll be used as stencils on your secondary colour fabric. If you wish, you could also design them using a computer and print them.

Trace your paper stencils onto the Bondaweb and cut them.

Following the maker’s instructions, iron the Bondaweb to the back of the fabric you’ve chosen for your letters and images. You can use parchment paper during this process to avoid any possible spills sticking to your iron. Allow the letters to cool down before cutting them out.

Take a minute to arrange the letters and images in place on the front of your flag. Once you’re happy with their position peel the backing paper off, stick them in place and iron them onto the flag. Place the parchment paper over them when ironing to avoid any Bondaweb sticking to your iron.

You could get your unit involved with designing and making the flag! Crafting your own unit flag will give girls a great opportunity to come together and think about what's important to them as a unit. You could look into colours and symbolism, the history of the areas they live in and help them design their own piece of history. If you’d like a guiding flag or banner to use at other events or recruitment drives, check out our online design centre for useful resources and guidance you can use to keep your materials on brand.

We’d love to see your creations! Tag us on social media or email us at yourvoice@girlguiding.org.uk