In high school, I devoted a large chunk of brain space to comparing my underwhelming life to a teen movie. Needless to say, it came up short. Where was the confrontational prom scene where everyone realizes that being prom queen is meaningless because we’re all equals? When was some mysterious new boy going to approach me at the football game? When would I learn transfiguration?!? In reality, (a) there was no social hierarchy to break down because my school consisted of average humans who had the common sense to not look up to one teenage girl as their leader, (b) American high schools are sorely lacking in the magic arts, (c) mysterious new boys are a suburban legend, and (d) I NEVER WENT TO A SINGLE FOOTBALL GAME. Nothing against my school or its athletes, but the idea of coming back to school on a Friday night after I’d devoted 40 hours plus homework time to it, just to watch dudes throw around a ball, sounded like the most exhausting thing in the world. I preferred spending my evenings doing highly important, intellectual things, like reading tweets from a dog. Because of my lack of school spirit, I never owned a piece of memorabilia from my alma mater. Not a single bumper sticker emblazoned with our team mascot or pair of pajama pants with the school’s name printed across the butt.

But just because I didn’t care about school sports doesn’t mean I need to be deprived of rah-rah décor! And neither do you. Today I’m going to show you how to make a pennant, inspired by ones like these. You can use yours to show your support for your favorite TV show, yourself, your favorite website (cough), even a SPORTS TEAM—anything you like!

What you’ll need:

• 1/2 yard or so of the fabric of your choosing (I got my ice cream sandwich print fabric here), ironed.
• A piece of felt.
• A ruler.
• A pencil.
• Scissors.
• Glue (fabric or tacky glue works best).
• A computer equipped with a word processor (I used Microsoft Word) and a printer.
• Optional: fabric paint and a thin paint brush.

How to make it:

1. Open up a new blank document. Type out what you want your banner to say (ideally one or two words), adjust the font to your liking (bold fonts work best), and change the size to 400. I used “brush script.” (I made my banner say “2 Cute 2 Care,” which I definitely do not mean in a “too cute, BE APATHETIC ABOUT LIFE” way. I mean it in a “TOO CUTE TO CARE ABOUT MY HATERS” kinda way.)

2. Individually highlight each letter after the first one and reduce the font by 25 points more each time. So, for my pennant, the 2 is set at 400 points; the next letter, C, is 375 points; u = 350 points, etc. This way, your words gradually get smaller. It should end up looking something like this:

3. Print out your words. They will probably take up two pieces of paper. Tape the sheets together, being careful to align the letters. Using a ruler and a pencil, draw a line from the last letter of your word/message to the top left corner of the paper, and another one from the last letter to the bottom left corner, so you end up with an elongated triangle. To fit the whole word/message, you’ll have to adjust the ruler a few times.

4. Cut out the triangle. This will be your template for your pennant. Tape it onto your fabric and use it as a guideline to cut a triangle from the fabric (you can also use pins to secure it down if you’re feeling professional).

5. Now cut your template into sections—by word, or by thirds of one long word—and it tape onto the felt. The easiest way to get precise felt letter cutouts is to cut straight into the paper. Like this:

You should end up with felt pieces that look like this:

6. Cut a piece of felt to the length of the wide end of your flag, and about ½ an inch wide. For me, this was about 7¾ inches. Cut two more small pieces out, about 2 inches x ½ inch each.

7. Glue the two small pieces to the wide end of the flag, about 3 inches from each edge. Then glue the long strip along the edge, creating a border.

8. Spread out your felt letters so they’re evenly spaced and then glue them to the fabric, one at a time.

9. This part is optional, but I noticed that once I put the letters on a patterned background, they weren’t really standing out, so I lined them with white fabric paint, using a thin paintbrush.

10. Hang your pennant on your bulletin board or wall and show that you’ve got spirit, yes you do. ♦