Tuesday 17 February 2015

Mini Bunting Tutorial

 With the excitement of getting my own Round Robin returned to me last week, I missed out telling you about the last one that I'd made for someone else.

My row is the one in the middle of this bright seaside themed quilt.  I pieced sandcastles, added a fused bucket and spade and finished it with some mini bunting (which I pinned on rather than sewing on - too hard to quilt around otherwise!
 So pleased was I with the mini bunting that I thought I'd share my quick and easy method with you.

This will give you a string of mini bunting of a yard or so - simply increase the number of flags and the length of the ribbon to suit what you'd like.

Recipe:
Narrow ribbon - 1 yard
Scraps - 12 x 1"x3"
Heat'n'bond' (or similar) - 6" square or equivalent.




1)  Cut your fusible.  You want to end up with 12 pieces of 1" x 3".

 2) Iron them onto the wrong sides of your chosen scraps.  I chose cool colours - but feel free to go as wild as you like!
 3) Cut around the fusible / fabric and peel the backing paper off the rectangles.
 4) Fold the rectangles in half, right sides out (so fusible sides together) and just touch an iron to the open ends to keep them together. 
 5) You will end up with 12 fabric 'loops' with the fusible on the inside.
 6) Time to shape them now.  I did mine by eye, but if you prefer you can measure and mark up the 1/2" point on what was the open end.  You need to cut from that centre point on the 'open' end to the edge of the closed end of the fabric loop.
7) Now do the same again on the other side of the loop.  You end up with a lovely sharp triangle and two waste triangles to throw away.

Finish the rest in the same way.
 8) Lay the flags out in a way that pleases you.
 9) Thread the ribbon through each flag 'bead'.  I spaced mine at 1 1/2" apart.  When you have the spacing that you like iron them onto the ribbon.  That's the joy of the fusible - you have just finished the bunting!

Of course, if you are really keen you could add a line of stitching (along the ribbon, or along the ribbon and around each flag).
 10) All you need to do now is to choose how to display your bunting!  Not bad for 20 minutes play!
Here's mine decorating a window.  Where is yours going to hang?




I love this little bunting!  The good news is that I have LOTS of scraps (but that's a subject for a whole other post!) - I could make enough of this to decorate the entire house!  I'm not sure that the rest of the family would stand for it though.

Have fun and let me know if you make your own!

4 comments:

  1. I really liked this quilt, and the bunting is fab! Thanks for the instructions

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you for that tutorial! Lobely!!!
    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh I just love the idea of a round robin and your bunting has stolen my heart! How charming!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for leaving a comment! I always appreciate it and will try to respond.