How to use the entire contents of an artboard as a pattern I can use on a path

I am pretty novice at illustrator, so I don't know the vocabulary I should even use to ask what I'm asking.

In simplest terms, what I want is for this repeating flag banner I made: 

To follow the exterior of this path (I applied a fill just so it's visible):

I could do it manually, but since it's a large group of shapes, I'm interested in seeing if there is a way I can convert it into a quickly repeatable asset. What I'm thinking is for the flag banner to be applied to a path in a somewhat similar way as the way text is applied to the type on a path tool. 

This isn't for anything, I'm just fooling around in illustrator so I can learn and get more comfortable working with it. Any insight greatly appreciated!