Make your own... Bunting

adds a certain 'je ne ce quoi' to a room or an event. Forget the plastic stuff you see at village fetes or hanging on the outside of a pub. Think vintage floral and soft fabrics delicately hung from beams or, in my case, the traditional marquee poles. When it is handmade with love, care and attention, bunting is just perfect to lift a room or garden.

You will need:

a selection of plain and patterned fabrics

bias binding

matching cotton to your bias binding

pinking shears

fabric scissors

triangle template made from pattern paper or baking parchment

Bias binding: This is a strip of fabric that has been cut on the bias - diagonally against the grain - where the edges have been pressed under. It is mostly used to bind curved and straight edges, or for making piping. It works brilliantly for making bunting as you don't see and raw edge of the triangles. It comes in different widths, lengths and colours. Most good habidasheries will have it but you will probably find entire rolls on ebay for a fraction of the price. I paid less than £10 for 66m.

Bias Binding

1. A bit of maths is needed to begin with. Draw your triangle template onto your pattern paper or baking parchment. I personally thing slightly longer triangles look better than triangles with a wide base and a short length. Decide on the length of your bunting and calculate roughly how many triangles will fit on your bias binding per metre, depending on the size of the gap you want between each triangle. Just to give you an idea, I had about 1.5cm between each triangle, and I could fit roughly 6 triangles per metre. Now you can calculate how many triangles you will need to cut out.

2. Pin your template to your fabric and use pinking shears to cut around your template. This will mean that your edges won't fray. If you are using patterned fabric, you won't need to use pinking shears, but instead you will need to use 2 pieces of fabric per triangle as 2 must be sewn together to get the pattern on both sides. Add a 1cm seam allowance to the size of your triangles. Pin the right sides together and sew around the two longest sides. Turn the right way out.

3. Cut your bias binding to length, adding 30cm additional length onto each end. This will give you plenty of room to attach your bunting to whatever you are hanging it from.

4. Lay your bias binding with the raw folded edges facing up. Place your triangle onto the bottom half of the bias binding. Fold over the top half of the bias binding and pin in place. Repeat until you have pinned the length of your bunting.

 

5. Sew along the bias binding to finish.

It can be time consuming if you have a lot to make, particularly cutting out the triangles. I needed to make 55m in total, but once I'd cut it all out, putting it all together took no time at all. Watch this space to see pictures of it up for our wedding!