Sewing Room Goodies
If you didn’t already know I’m a huge fan of bunting, so much so that I rallied the troops and made what felt like miles of the stuff for our wedding in 2015. I have a small length of it up in the house now but I have a bag full of autumnal bunting in orange, green and gold so if anyone has any thoughts on what I can do with it now I’d love to hear them.
Once I decided to make bunting I thought it would look great to create a collection of items using the same fabrics, although so far I’ve got as far as a cushion cover for the desk chair.
Bunting has to be one of the quickest, easiest and most satisfying projects there are to make, so I thought I’d show you how I do it.
Materials
Selection of fat quarters – totally depends how much you want to make and how many different types of fabric. For mine I used a selection of 4 patterns.
2.2 metres of bias binding
Paper
Cutting mat, rotary cutter and ruler OR pins and scissors
Iron and ironing board
Sewing machine and thread
Point turner/knitting needle/chopstick
When we made all the bunting for the wedding my Dad made a couple of wooden triangle templates to make things quicker, which I’m using but a paper pattern is fine for what we’re making here.
Draw a triangle template on paper measuring… 21.5cm x 24.5cm x 24.5cm
First prepare your fat quarters, ironing them flat and then folding them in half, wrong sides together, along the longest edge and pressing them.
Using your template to cut out your triangles, you should be able to get three or four pairs of triangles from one fat quarter. I cut two pairs of each fabric. Once you have cut them, keep them in the pairs – it will make the next step much easier.
Take one of your pairs of fabric, keeping them wrong sides together. If you want you can pin them together but after you’ve done a few you might find you don’t need to on such short seams. Starting at the top right, sew down the long side using a 1cm seam allowance, leave the needle in when you get towards the point and pivot the fabric so that you can then sew the other long side. Backstitch at the end and leave the short edge un-stitched.
Trim the corner at the point of the triangle and then turn the fabric right sides out. Use a point turner or chopstick to help you get a nice corner in the fabric.
Press the seams flat, I find the best way of doing this is to use your iron to press the seams open at the top of the triangle, as far down as you can on both sides, then press the whole thing flat on the right side. Trim the seams where they poke out to get a nice straight edge at the top.
Take your bias binding and press it in half lengthways, bringing the two folded edges together with the raw edges on the inside. You might find it’s enough just to do this with your fingers but if needed you can use an iron.
Create a loop at one end of 10 cm then place your first triangle inside the bias binding at 5 cm from the raw edge of the loop. Pin the binding closed and move onto your next triangle. You can decide whether you want to have a continuous run of bunting but I left a one inch gap between each one. Once you have pinned all your triangles in place create another loop at the other end. These loops can be used to help you hang the bunting.
Finally topstitch the triangles into the bias binding, stitching the short edges of the loop together but leaving the rest of the loop open. Sew as close to the edge as you can, taking the pins out as you reach them.
Now, marvel at the beauty you have just created and quick, find somewhere to hang it. I plan to hang mine from a couple of small nails hammered into the wall.
Cushion complete with pom pom trim, totally love this. I just made a simple envelope style cushion cover, stitching the trim in between the layers of fabric was definitely the trickiest bit!
Do you have any quick and easy projects for fat quarters?