Fill in the blank (_) in the following sentence from the following choices.
Sentence: When we decorated the dollhouse we used banners over flags as the _ were small enough to fit on it.

Choice 1: When we decorated the dollhouse we used banners over flags as the banners were small enough to fit on it.
Choice 2: When we decorated the dollhouse we used banners over flags as the flags were small enough to fit on it.
Which of the choices is correct? Respond with only "1" or "2" and no additional text.
1
1.