She’s Crafty: colts and windmills fabric bunting

Over the summer I decided to figure out how to make fabric scrap bunting and I thought I’d share my project with you for She’s Crafty.

I’m pretty new to the whole sewing thing, so I’m trying to come up with projects that will help me dip my toe into the sewing pond. I had some gorgeous Skinny Laminx fabric that I’ve been dying to make something with and I’ve been wanting to make my own fabric bunting ever since I made my foxy paper garland and did a feature on some other folks’ buntings. Mine didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped, but I’m still proud of it and now I’ve got the skillz to make my own for special occasions and holidays!

The fabric I used was Colt Circles in Seafoam from Skinny Laminx. It’s  100% cotton and screenprinted in waterbased ink an it’s available for sale in several different lengths.

Materials:

1. Fabric Scraps (mine are from Skinny Laminx)
2. Cardstock
3. Bias Tape
4. Thread
5. Pinking Sheers
6. Sewing Machine
7. Potato
8. Acrylic Paint
9. Foam Brush, optional
10. Ruler
11. Scissors
12. Straight Pins

How-to:

• Make a triangular pattern from the cardstock. Mine is 7  inches wide by 9 1/2 inches.  For those who are a little drawing challenged like me. I made it by drawing a line 7 inches long. Then drew another line perpendicular to the original one and equidistant from each end…I just made a big ‘T’. Then I used a straight edge to draw a line from the bottom of the T to each side of the original line. Cut out your triangle pattern with scissors.
• Pin the pattern to your fabric and use the pinking sheers to cut our your triangular flags. I cut out 5, you can do more if you want.
• Use the straight pins to affix the top of your flags in between the folded bias tape. Determine how for apart you want them to be. Mine are about 1 1/2 inches apart.  Make sure to leave a ‘tail’ of bias tape on each end that you can use to pin your bunting up.  I left about 6 inches on each end.
• Prepare your sewing machine with the thread you want to use and sew the length of the bias tape, making sure that you are sewing through all 3 layers—the 1st layer of bias tape, the flag & the 2nd layer of bias tape. I kept my stitches sort of small & I made sure to reverse a little on the end so they won’t come out.
• Now, you can add a design with a potato stencil or decide to skip this step. I had this really awesome fabric from Skinny Laminx that I wanted to add some windmill shapes to. Why windmills? I don’t know, but there’s something about those colts that make me think of windmills.
• Cut a potato in half and cut out your design.  Remember, the raised up parts will be the bits that have paint on them.
• Once you have created your design, dip the potato stencil in paint (or use a foam brush like me) and place it paint side down on your flag…keeping in mind how the pendants are going  to hang and how the design will appear. You maybe don’t want to add your design upside down. Press down for 30 seconds or so and voila. Repeat as often as you’d like.
• Let your paint dry and then hang your bunting.