Make your own bunting

Decorating your house and making it your own can seem like a tireless job, but is actually super easy with a few bits of personalised decorations that make you happy. One of my favourite things to decorate with is bunting and I am very lucky that my wonderful mum is a master seamstress who enjoys making an easy, low-cost tutorial. So, today we welcome Penny as our next guest poster to show us how to make bunting...

You will need:

Fabric: anything goes – cotton, polycotton or linen look best

Bunting tape, bias binding or Grosgrain Ribbon - approx.1inch wide.

Fabric Scissors

Matching thread

Sewing Machine - Straight stitch length 2.5 (of course you can hand stitch if you would like it just might take longer)

Method:

1. If you are using scraps of fabric, make a cardboard template and use it to cut triangles from all your fabrics. Lay fabric out with any patterns facing up and lay your bunting template onto the fabric; cut as many flags as you would like.

If you have larger pieces of fabric cut it into strips for the height of your triangle and mark along both long edges to the desired width of your triangle (see diagram 1). Then join the marks together to quickly cut triangles in bulk.

2. Make pairs of triangles and place right sides together. This can be matching fabric or different depending on the finished look you want for your bunting. If you want to add any applique or embroidery to the flags do that now before joining the pairs.

Sew a 1cm seam allowance along the two long edges to make a 'v' shape, making sure to not sew the top closed as you'll need to turn them through! I like to use my overlocker for this stage but an ordinary sewing machine is fine.

3. Trim the point of the triangle to reduce the fullness. Turn the flags the right way round and carefully poke the point through with a chopstick or blunt pencil. Iron the flags so that they are all flat and neat.

4. I like to do this all in one step but you can pin the flags first if you prefer.

Using zig-zag stitch, width 3.5-4 and length 2.5, fold the bunting tape in half and start sewing along the length of the tape keeping the foot lined up with the edges to sew along the centre. Add a flag into the folded tape and attach, carry on sewing through the space between the flags then add another. I use a piece of card as a visual guide to ensure the pace between flags is always the same or you can measure each time.

Try a fancy stitch too for that special finishing touch!

5. And that is it! Your bunting is ready to be hung up in time for those Summer garden parties or to brighten up your home.