Bunting Time! (Template and instructions)

Download and print this small template

if you don`t feel like making your own!

(I recommend putting it into a word document just

to adjust the kind of size you want, it seems

a bit more accurate doing it that way).

In this blog update, I`ve made templates for your own bunting and further down there`s a tutorial and some step by step images to make my instructions seem a bit more clearer.

I`m not sure if everyone can remember me mentioning that I was going to be helping out my boss with doing up the care home a bit, well I won`t really be helping hands on, I`ve offered to do some bits for her and luckily she`s taken me up on that offer.
If you didn`t read about it then, it`ll be over on the live diary blog!


I`ve only just gotten into sewing really, and I`m already doing odd bits on my sewing machine for my boss.
One of the walls in the home is being turned into a seaside themed area, with 3D wooden beach huts coming off of the walls, painted blue sky in the background and seaside/nautical themed bunting on the walls! That`s where little Amy comes in to save the day!

It`s given me the proper chance to try out some of my new found skills and to try something new out on the sewing machine; plus, I want to make myself some and I want to know if I can actually do something like this without wasting all of my fabric. The Ilkeston Haberdashery just around the corner form the library had everything I could of possibly needed to get started on something like this, I know it seems basic to a lot of people, but I used to bloody hate textile work and now I love it!


I bought all of my fabrics for just under £16 pounds, and considering all of the other fabrics I bought that weren`t actually related to the seaside theme and where just for my personal use, I`d say that`s quite a good deal! I bought everything in half metres though since I`m trying to keep my spending at a minimum until my next payday; I`m also trying to save a bit of money before I start University in September as I need brand new equipment now.

Step 1.
Cut out all of your fabrics

and select two to pin

together!

If anything, I also want some bunting for when I move into my new room. My mum was also going
to throw away some old curtains, So I might of pulled them out of the bin and then used them myself to use for some extra practise with my sewing; the fabric is actually quite nice, it`s a dark creamy/grey kind of colour with dark pick flowers that have small grey stems coming out of them... Quite cute, but quite old aswell. I`m sure when I`ve finished practising I`ll be able to use the leftover fabrics for something that`s actually useful.

Step 2.
Once pinned together,
Begin to sew around

the edges. Be sure to

leave a gap at the top!

So the template that I used for the bunting that I made is slightly different and was harder to work with, in future I`m definitely going to use the bunting template that I made myself with the rectangle attachment for the fabric that connects it all next time. The templates that I used where slanted towards the top, but I found that slightly more awkward to work with. If you want to use the same template that I`ve used for my bunting, then use the second template that I`ve quickly put together; the diagonal edge on the top of the bunting made it some what bulky when I was adding the white fabric across the top, I do recommend the rectangle one, it fits into the fabric a lot easier when it comes to sewing it all together.

Tutorial starts here!

Step 3.
once sewn, simply fold inside out

so you can now see the nicer

side of the fabric, and none

of the stitches.

If you`re going to make your bunting the same as mine, then you`ll need double the amount of fabric cutting out; this entitles you too bunting that is double sided and has no visible stitches.

Once you`ve finished the incredibly tedious task of cutting out all of your fabrics, you`re going to want to begin pinning the pieces together. This is also why you need to cut out double the amount; you`ll need to pin your fabric in a certain way so that you get the right pattern on the visible part of the bunting.
To be honest, it is actually very straight forward. You`ll need to examine your fabrics and decide on which side would be best to be on show; in my case, this is darker side. Then get two of your cut out pieces of fabric, and sandwich them together so the side of the fabric that you would like to be visible is actually hidden. The side of the fabric that you don`t want on show, should be the only fabric that you can see; then, if you`re like me and struggle with keeping the stitches running in a straight line down the edge of the fabric, pin it together for extra support.

Once it`s pinned and you`re happy with the arrangement of your fabrics, begin to sew around the edges of the two pieces of fabric that have been sandwiched together.
Since we also have that extra section at the top of the template, you can either; not sew the extra section at all, or, sew half of it and then leave a gap. The gap is just so you can pull the fabric inside out, so you can then see the nicer side of the fabric that will then be on display once your bunting is complete.

After that, you should have selection of adorable triangles that you can then arrange into a pattern. In my case, I only had two different patterned fabrics too arrange, (light green with pink flowers, cream with pink flowers) so mine was pretty straight forward to arrange.

Step 4.

You`ll need extra long plain fabric

to hold all of your bunting together.
Sew one length and one width.

If you also haven`t had a cup of tea, go grab one and then continue, even little artists deserve some sort of tea break.

Step 5.
Pin it all together and

start sewing!

The last part was really fiddly, especially if you have rather chubby fingers like mine. You`ll need a few long stripes of plain fabric, and this will work with a 3cm or 4cm width. For my bunting, I`m using a light, thin, creamy coloured fabric and sewing it all together with grey thread.

I chose to use 3cm wide strips for my bunting, and my fabric wasn`t long enough to be a straight strip of fabric; so I had to cut out an extra strip to add more length. But, we`re going to be doubling up our fabrics, so because I have had to use two lengths of fabric, I`ll need to cut out another two so I can double it up. Once you`ve cut them out, sandwich the fabrics together and pin them in place so you can accurately sew them. When sewing these strips together, you`ll own want to sew one length and one side. Then fold the strip inside out and pin it down; since the strips aren`t that wide, they`ll just pop back up once it`s been folded inside out.
Only sewing one length and one width, means that we`ll be able to slot the bunting inside and stitch altogether.

Before you begin to slot in the previously sewn flags, you`ll want to measure the distance in-between the flags, just too make sure everything is even. The way I measured mine was too fold a flag in half and use that as a make shift ruler; placing the top of the flag along the plain strip of fabric and then placing a flag each side, this meant I had smaller gaps and my bunting looked fuller.

You should hopefully end up with

something a little bit like this!

When you`ve got the bunting pinned inside of the strips of fabric, go down the strip and fold in a tiny bit of the fabric and then pin it; you`ll then have to sew down this folded line to ensure that you cannot see the edges of the plain fabric that you`re using to hold all of the bunting in place. Try and use threads that are a similar colour to the plain fabric, you`ll be able to see these stitches and you`ll want to use something that looks neat.
This part is very fiddly, so take your time to fold in the fabric and pin it in place; without the pins the fabric may become untucked and you`ll be sewing the edges of the fabric, and the edges are what we need to hide. Since we had only sewn down one width, you can also go and sew down the one that we`ve left out when you`re completing your bunting.

Hopefully you end up with something like mine, hopefully anyways.

A lovely close up of the bunting that I`ve created throughout

this tutorial.

very vintage looking patterns and colours!

I never do tutorials, or instructions on how to do things like this, and this is actually my first proper textile walk through I guess. I`m going to be working on some more bunting aswell, so you`ll probably see those somewhere later on. I`m also going to try and make something a bit more creative out of the scraps of fabric that I`ve got laying around.
I do apologise if the tutorial wasn`t that straight forward or clear, I`ve tried to phrase everything so I`d understand it and I`d think it`s clear. But then again, we all read things in different ways and prefer different tutorials. Hopefully the images I`ve added make it somewhat more clearer for you.
Feel free to use the templates that I`ve created, I got ideas for my original template online since I`m terrible at measuring things so it`s all pretty and even.

I hope this made some sense! You`ll see all of my other creative pieces appearing soon, and in the next update I`ll be showing you how to do some basic flower pressing!

If I`m playing Pokemon

go, I`ll be playing it like a

true fan!

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