How To Make Bunting

We're getting married in a barn, and well, we're on a super tight budget so filling the place with flowers is a bit out of the question so what better way to adorn the place than with some home-made bunting?  I was given a sewing machine at Christmas by Andy and had yet to use it for anything useful!  So I headed off to my favourite shop, Broadway Bargains in Worcester Park (run by the sweetest old ladies, I just loving going in there!!).  

I had already bought some purple and white gingham from them a few months back that I had yet to find a use for so I knew I just needed purple and lime green to start with.  They had the perfect purple but no green so I had to trek into Kingston to Fabric Land for the lime green but that was no hardship.  Also bought some binding tape (but I did this before I had found a tutorial and so it's a bit too narrow to be wholly useful!)

So I came home and did my research and found the most useful tutorial I think I have ever come across on the internet at Homemade & Happy.  Go check it out because it's better than what shall now follow!

I started by laying out my card triangle and making a repeating pattern (which you can't see for the gingham!!).

This is a slightly better picture on the green fabric.  Am doing double sided as the fabric is a bit thin and well, it looks more professional innit!

Cut them out with them pinned together (I went a bit overboard on the pins to begin with, one pin in the middle of each pair was enough really!!)

I missed a few steps in my pictures but basically, I stitched them together, cut off the excess fabric at the point, turned them right way out and used a pintail comb to push the points out (the original tutorial recommends using a point turner or a light coloured pencil but the pintail comb was all I had to hand and worked pretty well!!

This is the pile turned out.

Pop the cardboard template inside each one and give it a good iron to make them a nice flat shape.

Rare ironing moment, the only thing I have ironed in YEARS are these triangle!

Erm, yeah, then my picture taking went downhill and I didn't take any actual pictures of me stitching them to the binding tape (note to self: don't bother with How To's in the future!!).  But basically, the original tutorial uses inch wide tape, whereas I had only bought 1/2 inch tape, so I had to just stitch them straight on instead of folding the tape over the top of each triangle (penant, apparently!).  I'm going to use up the tape I have, by the time they're hung up in the barn, you won't see it.  I used a purple thread with a lime green bobbin to keep the theme going (even if I nearly threw the sewing machine across the room trying to wind the green bobbin, bastard thing!!)

Approximately half the finished article!

In the long run, I'm hoping to stich (or use that iron on webbing stuff!) to put some musical notes on the green ones, I've got some cut out ready to go but am enjoying making the penants too much to bother fiddling about with cutting out the notes (and the bass clef, that's the most important one, the bass (I pretend I can play bass, when in fact the gorgeous thing is sitting in my bedroom, out of tune and untouched!))

All cut out and ready to go (when I can be bothered!)

So, there you have it, the most half baked How To tutorial in the history of time!!  But I would recommend having a go if you have the time and inclination.  If I can do it, then really anyone with a bit of sewing machine knowledge can!