If you know how to sew, and you’re always looking for a little something extra to add to your decor, fabric bunting is the easiest way to go! My first time sewing bunting only took me a little over an hour and a half to complete. You just fly right through it! Make them as short or as long as you’d like and voila! This tutorial is about how to make simple bunting using sewing.

Things you’ll need:

Your choice of fabrics

1 piece of card stock

Wide double fold bias tape

Iron

Scissors

Sewing machine

 

* These directions are for a bunting that will hang on a 6′ mantle with 7 flags *

1. Choose your fabrics.

2. Make a triangle pattern using card stock.  (Fold the paper in half, cut from corner to middle then from other corner to middle)

3. Measure where you’d like your bunting to hang. Add 2 feet to that number. This is the amount of ribbon/ric rac/string you’ll want to cut. This will give you enough room to space the flags and enough at the end to tie or pin.

4. To determine the number of flags you’ll be making, use the measurement of where you are wanting to put your bunting (not including the extra 2 feet) and add 1. So if your mantle is 6 feet wide, 6 plus 1. You’ll be making 7 flags.

5. Now it’s time to trace and cut your flags. Since you’ll be making 7 flags, you’ll need 14 triangles of fabric. Use the card stock triangle you made earlier to trace your triangles on the wrong side of the fabric.

6. After you have your triangles cut, you’ll want to spread them out and pair them up. I chose to have the front and back be different fabrics. You can do this or have them be the same, totally a personal choice. Flip the fabrics so that they’re all right sides together.

7. Now it’s time to sew the triangles together. Sew along one of the longer side of the triangles. You can do them all at once, just sew along one edge, leave a little space, then sew the next. It’s a lot quicker and easier and saves you thread this way.

8. Next, sew along the other long side of the triangle.

9. Cut them apart and turn them right side out. I use a chopstick but you can use the end of your scissors, or even the eraser end of a pencil.

10. Now it’s time to iron them so they lay nice and flat. Aren’t they pretty!?

11. Lay your triangles out in the pattern in which you’d like them to hang.

12. We’re almost done! Take your bias tape, measure about 6-8″ from each end and pin. This will be your guide for where to start to hang your triangles. Take one of the outside triangles and pin the outer corner it at the 6″ mark. Just open the bias tape, place the top of the triangle inside, close the bias tape and pin in place. Do this to the other end as well.

13. Fold your bias tape in half the long way. This is where you’ll be placing the middle triangle. Again just just open the bias tape, place the top of the triangle inside, close the bias tape and pin in place. Now that you have 3 triangles pinned in place, you will be able to space the rest evenly.

14. Once you have them all pinned in place, it’s time to sew! You’ll want to sew close to the open edge of the bias tape. I used contrasting thread and went over it several times with a normal stitch and then again with a zig zag stitch just to add a pop of color and fun to the bunting.

You’re all done! Go hang your bunting and admire it! Wasn’t it easy?! If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Tags: bunting, fabric, tutorial

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 and is filed under the tutorials. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.