How to...Make Bunting

I haven't done a How To post for ... nearly a year maybe? It's one of the things that fell behind and didn't get picked up again. Partly because I was busy, partly because I had a great idea for a how to and it didn't ever get made, partly because... oh I don't know these are all excuses!

But anyway, enough of that. On to this month's tutorial: How to make bunting. I used this at my craft fair last week (and sadly only managed to get the one photo so sorry for repeating a picture so soon!) and I got a few comments on how good it looked. I have grand plans to add lettering to my bunting at some point in the near future but here is a basic tutorial for you to get started on!

I couldn't find two of my triangles so they have been left off - but now I've found them, they're being added! 

You will need:
material
scissors
fabric scissors
some card for a template
pins
matching thread
preferably a sewing machine (or it'll take a while!)

What to do:

1) Cut a triangle out of card as a template - it needs to be the size that you want your bunting triangles to be.


2) Spread out your material and draw around the triangle on the wrong side of the material. Leave plenty of room around it for seam allowances and draw more triangles. You will need 2 triangles for each bunting triangle so 18 is probably a good number (will make 9 triangles which should be enough).

3) Cut around the triangles leaving plenty of room for seam allowance. Once you have cut out the triangles, cut the corners off close to the point of the corners


4) Place 2 triangles together - right sides facing in. Pin them together along the two longer sides leaving the top edge open. My top tip is: if you pin at 90 degrees to the line, then you can sew straight over the pins with your sewing machine. I usually get a bit scared just before sewing over so I take the pin out just as I come up to it.


5) Sew along the two edges that you have pinned. Snip off the excess material in the seams and tie the ends.

6) Turn the triangles the right way around. Use a pencil/ the end of a paintbrush to push the end corner out as far as you can so that it makes a point.

7) Iron your triangles so that the seams are exactly at the edges. Make sure you iron both sides though.

8) So far so good - that wasn't hard, was it? Now for the slightly more tricky bit (but still pretty easy!)
Cut a long strip of material (the length you want your bunting to be) about 8 - 9 cm wide. For my bunting I recycled an old sheet so I just used the length of the sheet for mine.





9) Fold and iron the edges of the material into the middle so that the width is now half of what it was.

10) Fold the material in half and iron again so that now you have the actual width of your bunting line and you have some easily ironed lines that you can sew down.








11) Find the half-way point in your long strip and stick a pin in it to mark where you are. Now take one of your bunting triangles and slip the open edge of your triangle between the two halves of your bunting strip. Line up your halfway mark pin with the end corner of your triangle and then pin the triangle in place.







12) Decide how much space you want between your bunting triangles and pin the next triangle into your strip. Measure the distance between the two triangles as you will need to have all your triangles evenly spaced. On the other side of your middle triangle, measure the distance and pin the next triangle in place. Continue until you have all 9 triangles pinned: one in the middle and four on each side.

13) Fold the ends of your strip in so that you have no raw edges and pin them.



14) Starting at one end of your bunting strip, sew along the edge from one end to the other. Make sure you are fairly close to the open edge as you don't want open edges.

15) Tie up the ends, snip close to the tie so that it's nearly invisible and ... wow that was quick!