Free color guard SVG files

The flag and the sabre

A color guard tells the story of the music with movement and with equipment that it spins, tosses and catches. The flag is the heart of it: a silk on a straight pole about six feet long, with a rubber tip at each end so that it can be dropped to the floor without a mark. Many guards also spin a sabre, a blunt show sword with a guard over the grip. In the autumn the guard performs on the field with a marching band, and in the winter guard season it performs indoors on a floor of its own.

These files leave the silk plain apart from one sweeping band and a star, because every guard has its own. Cut the single-colour flag in your main colour, or use the layered flag and choose two.

Long thin shapes, and how to cut them

Everything a guard spins is long and thin, which is hard on a blade. At 100 mm the flag pole is under 4 mm wide and the sabre blade tapers from under 5 mm to under 2 mm at the point. In vinyl that is fine from 120 mm long, as long as you weed towards the tips. For card, wood or acrylic go to 200 mm or more, or use the heart, the badge and the monogram ring, where the flags are held inside a larger shape and nothing can snap.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions