a birthday banner with burlap

i was so happy that one of my sis in laws asked if i would make a banner for an upcoming surprise party, because 1. i haven't done anything "hands on" crafty lately and 2. i got to work with burlap for the first time.

here were the colors she gave me:

i loaded up the babe, and we headed to Joann's to pick up some burlap and navy fabric. i may have felt slightly retarded because it took me a while to find the burlap section (ps-it's found by the "industrial" fabric/section). the navy blue fabric is just cotton.

the tricky part came when i actually sat down to figure out how to connect the burlap to the cotton. because burlap is so weird and.....thick and has holes, i couldn't sew on it with a machine(i heard it would be bad news bears if i did that) or use hot glue or fabric adhesive. so i finally just grabbed some yarn and  a big needle. and i stitched across the top like this:

here's the back:

it's kind of hard to see in the pic, but after i stitched the navy cotton to the burlap, i threaded one long piece of yarn through all of them, then placed a piece of tape over that to keep it steady. here is the banner completed and hanging up at the party:

i think if i could do it again, i'd use brown yarn to match the burlap. (oh, and the letters i just cut out with my Silhouette!)

*have you ever made something with burlap before? what was it?