Even before the engagement, I decided that Jake and I needed our own house standard for Plague Fair. Being a very crafty covid-cohort, several houses in attendance would be carrying them. A standard or war banner is a flag depicting a house-identifier such as a sigil, pattern, symbol or color that immediately identifies your army or traveling party from a distance.
Our banner is a 22″ wide flag on a 24″ dowel that will be hung on a hook in the yard instead of mounted on a pike. We are hosting, not traveling, so we won’t be marching in with our banner. A family’s sigil most often has to do with the family occupation, their geographical seat, the gods they worship, or an important story from the family mythology, like an accomplishment in war. Our chosen sigil is a dog/wolf fighting a bear to mythologize the time our dog Tovi chased a black bear up a tree on our property.
House Griffinheimer with a borrowed cricut helped me print the creature designs and I hand-cut the lettering from the leftover vinyl. Glad my new name is so linear in capitals. After the decals were laid out and pressed onto the upholstery brocade, I cut and sewed the back-side onto the banner and turned right-side-out. A flower-design in golden thread adorns the bottom and a bell and tassel draws attention, should we ever need to march with our standard.
A fun sewing project and keepsake from early in our married days.
