Home-sewn bunting

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Such a joyful thing to be doing with this wonderful spring weather. Soooo good to get my sewing machine out, I've been wanting to for six months. My friend made bunting for her daughter's (my Goddaughter) birthday a couple of years ago and it looked amazing - I've been wanting to try it ever since. With a garden party planned at work it seemed like the perfect time. I ran a mini-tutorial on Twitter, which I will share here and expand the notes later on for clarity.

I knew roughly what I wanted, but I was trying to decide how to finish the edges and what sort of spacing I wanted between my flags. I came, I googled, I found: Nasty Wench, Laura Ashley and for kids. None was quite what I wanted, but it clarified what I DID want, so I began.

I gathered 1-2 metres of 5 different fabrics. You won't need this much unless you are aiming for the 20 metres that I was. I got 20 finished pennants out of roughly a metre of fabric. I also bought a a fresh spool of thread and a full roll (20m) of 25mm bias tape. You could certainly make your own, and it would be lovely, but I wasn't making 20m of bias binding. This was a one day job.

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Home-sewn bunting step #1 - Cut out your ideal triangle out of cardboard. Mine was 6" wide b 7.5" long.

Home-sewn bunting step #2 - From freezer paper, cut out as many triangles as you want flags on your bunting.

DSC_8176 Home-sewn bunting step #3 - With fabric folded right sides together, iron on freezer paper triangles & pin corners.

Home-sewn bunting hint: place your triangles carefully and you can cut with very little waste.

DSC_8184 Home-sewn bunting step #4 - Cut out your triangles. Depending on size & spacing, you'll need + or - 5 a metre.

Home-sewn bunting
hint - if you cut out your triangles with pinking shears you won't need
to turn them inside out once they're sewn.

DSC_8187 Home-sewn bunting step #5 - Chain stitch your triangles, sewing only the long sides together.
DSC_8191 Home-sewn bunting step #6 - Turn triangles right way out, poke corner & press into shape using cardboard template.
DSC_8201 Home-sewn bunting step #7 - Sort your pennants into a colour order you like and stack ready to pin.
DSC_8204 Home-sewn bunting step #8 - Space pennants (I used a 3" cardboard template) and pin into folded bias tape. Stitch.