A video explains the difficult work of making a United States flag in the traditional way

The United States flag, also known as "Old Glory", is one of the most famous and unique flags in the world.

The British origin of the characteristic national flag of the United States of America
The flags of US states and cities that are inspired by Spanish flags

Last year we already saw here the British origin of that flag, whose design is based on that of the flag of the British East India Company. In October we reviewed here the five characteristics that a good flag should have, and significantly the US flag fails to meet the first of the criteria: simplicity. It is a very complicated flag to make in the traditional style, especially when compared to the flags of other countries such as Germany, the Czech Republic, Spain, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal or Ukraine, which are based on simpler design schemes.

The difficulty of making this flag can be fully understood by looking at its official specifications (above), established by Executive Order 10834, issued by President Dwight D. Eisenhower on August 21, 1959, the day Hawaii joined the United States as its 50th state. The country's current flag has not changed since then. These specifications dictate the flag's design, the placement of its elements, and their proportions. Translating this onto a piece of fabric is very complicated.

Today, the vast majority of flags are made by sublimation (using digital printing) or screen printing, a very old method that allows thousands of flags to be printed from a single pattern. Office flags are generally made by sewing and embroidery, which makes them considerably more expensive. There are companies that manufacture flags using this latter method on an industrial scale, but in the past, the entire process was done by hand.

On June 6, Chris Flag posted an interesting video showing the process of making a traditional US flag, in this case using a sewing machine (hand-sewing would take much longer) and without embroidery to make a flag for hoisting, which are the ones raised on flagpoles with ropes. It's a good example of why many countries have historically opted for simpler flag designs: besides being more visible, their production process is simpler and cheaper.

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Main image: Chris Flag.