Birthday bunting
I have been wanting to make a celebration bunting for awhile, and just never got around to it. Well, I finally made some for J’s birthday party! They are just triangles that I cut out of some fun fabrics. I sewed two triangles together, wrong sides facing, and then pinked the edges. You don’t need to sew the tops because you attach them all together with wide double-fold bias tape. The only hard part was the pinking shears (almost gave myself a blister! should have bought a pinking rotary cutter blade), and sewing closed the bias tape edge at the ends. It was trying to get stuck in my machine. I made my tying ends about 12-14 inches long, and I think they should have been a bit longer. Because I used two fabrics for each triangle, they are also reversible.
Make your own celebration bunting!
1. Cut out your triangles. I made a pattern out of cardstock, and then decided that I wanted it to be a little bit bigger, so I just measured an extra half-inch all the way around when I was cutting. I probably should have just cut a new piece of cardstock, LOL! This is a lot easier with a rotary cutter and long ruler.
Cut out your triangles
The size of my triangles was around 8.5" by 11"
2. Take two triangles (I matched the fabrics, but you could mix and match too), put them together, wrong sides facing, and sew from the top corner, down to the tip and back up to the other corner, with a 1/2″ seam allowance. Backstitch at the start and stop.
3. Don’t even bother cutting your threads, just push the first off, and keep going, sewing the next triangle, etc. Snip the threads later!
Sew two triangles together
4. Trim the sewn sides with pinking shears. This helps prevent fraying. If you feel like you are going to wash them a lot, you might want to sew them together right sides facing, and then turn them inside out, and press. And skip the pinking shears. I didn’t really see myself washing them ever, so this was not a concern to me. You can also buy pinking blades for your rotary cutter which is a lot easier than doing it by hand!
5. Buy a package of double-fold wide bias tape in a coordinating color. Mark 18″ from the end with a pin. Sew the bias tape closed up to the pin. Remove the pin, and place your first triangle inside the fold of the bias tape. Just keep sewing and enclose the top end of the triangle into the bias tape fold. Stop about 2 inches from the end of the triangle, and place your next triangle. I didn’t bother pinning or anything, but you could if that makes you more comfortable.
6. The number of triangles that you can fit will depend on how wide your triangles are, how much you overlap them, and how long you make your ends. My ends are actually about 12″ and I think it’s too small. It would be better just a little bit longer in terms of being able to tie them securely around objects. My triangles were 8.5″ wide across the top, I only overlapped by a tiny bit, and had 12″ of end strings. I was able to fit ten triangles on each length of double-fold bias tape. You could also sew two packages of bias tape together before you start, giving you two lengths, and an extra long bunting.
7. When you finish the last triangle, keep sewing the remaining end of the bias tape closed, remembering to backstitch at the end of course. Without the flags inside the bias tape, my machine was really trying to eat it up and jam, so keep pulling it along if you have to.
Voila! Celebration bunting! I see a lot of people who applique words on their bunting (you could either sew the appliqued letters, or even just use Wonder-Under). Or you could stencil letters with fabric paint. You could make this as a decoration for your child’s room instead of for a party, applique their name on it. If you wanted to make it super-quickie, you could just use one triangle, and just sew them into the bias tape. Of course, you could also make your own bias tape if you wanted! This is a quick and fun project.
Filed under: Random Crafting, Tutorials | Tagged: Family, Home decorating | 3 Comments »
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