SAN ANTONIO – Hours of detail and hard work will be displayed on the national stage Inauguration Day on January 20th.
The San Antonio small business Dixie Flag & Banner Co. was once again chosen by the White House to seam pieces of fabric that symbolize the nation’s history.
The order for a series of five flags came in weeks after Election Day. Vanessa Van de Putte, President and CEO of Dixie Flag & Banner Co. said it’s an order they’ve received during the past five presidential inaugurations.
“This will be our sixth inauguration,” Van de Putte said. “There is a US flag with 50 stars on it. There (are also two) Betsy Ross flags, which has the thirteen stars and a circle, and then, there’s also a 13-star flag, which is called the Navy flag.”
A lot of teamwork goes into the production of the hand-sewn flags.
“The salesperson will take the order, (and then) it’ll go to our department (to) make patterns,” Lucy Rodríguez, lead seamstress at Dixie flag said. “Then, it will go to our cutter to cut the material, and then, it’ll come to the seamstresses.”
The seamstress must transfer the design to the fabric using the prick and pounce method. The pattern is pricked with tiny holes, placed on the fabric, and finally pounced with powder to leave tiny dots on the fabric.
Rodríguez said she always begins sewing the stars and later joins the stripes.
“Each stripe is 11-inches wide,” Rodríguez said. “The banner itself is 22-feet 8-inches (long) and the width is 12-feet.”
Although it’s a process that requires a lot of precision and concentration, it doesn’t take the lead seamstress a long time to make each flag come to life.
“(It takes) maybe three to four days for each one,” Rodríguez said.
The team at Dixie Flag is eager to see their work displayed on the national stage behind President-elect Joe Biden on Inauguration Day.
“The United States flag is a living symbol of our country, of the people in it,” Van de Putte said. “What we really hope is that when people (watch) the inauguration, that they just really feel (hopeful).”
Rodríguez completed the project in a matter of weeks. The flags have since been shipped to Washington D.C.
For more information or to place an order for a flag, visit the small business’ website here.