LolaLand Creations: Tutorial: What Is Bunting???

One of my really good friends is having a baby (very soon!), and I was honored to throw her a baby shower with two other friends. Fortunately and unfortunately, both of my co-hosts are extremely craft like me! We kept thinking of all the fun things we could make for the shower and may have gone a little overboard. :)

I volunteered to make some festive bunting, to which both girls agreed since neither of them had a clue what bunting is. My mom didn't know. My husband didn't know. I didn't even know what it was until last year. I failed miserably in explaining it to my husband and finally had to pull up a picture on the web. His response to the picture was, "Oh! Yeah, I have seen that before, but only with that bright plastic stuff at gas stations and car lots." Too funny. According to Collins English Dictionary at dictionary.com, Bunting = decorative flags, pennants, and streamers. For you visual people, this is bunting:

Well, today I'm going to show you how to make your own double-sided fabric bunting. I love the idea of using fabric bunting for baby showers especially because you can gift it to the mom-to-be used each year for baby's birthday or for any festive and fun occasion she wants to use it! They look adorable in the background of newborn photo shoots as well!

But first a quick note. You can find my standard tutorial usage policy on my Info Page. In this particular case, you may sell bunting you make using this pattern if you personally request and are granted permission from me (email lola[at]lolalandcreations[dot]com). But you may not sell this pattern or this pattern slightly adjusted as your own pattern. Thank you for respecting my work. Alright, now that that's out of the way, let's do this!

Materials:

3 fat quarters
string (honestly, I think I upcycled an old spool of kite string)
thin utensil that will write on fabric - best if erasable/washable (I used a water soluble marker)
ruler
scissors or cutting mat and rotary cutter (I used a cutting mat and rotary cutter)
iron and ironing board
sewing machine, thread, and scissors

Instructions:
*Note: Please excuse the horrible picture quality and switching of fabrics in the middle of the tutorial. Also, enjoy learning from my mistakes. :)

1. Iron the wrinkles out of your fat quarter and straighten one of the shorter ends by cutting off the selvage. Use your ruler (and cutting mat if you have one) and writing utensil to mark a straight line down the approximate center of your fat quarter from short end to short end. Mark two additional lines 8 3/4" from each side of the center line. (I cut my side lines and didn't realize until later that it would have been easier for me to just mark them - Hi. I'm Lola. I like to do things the hard way.)

2. Mark a dot every 7" down the center line, starting at the straightened edge. Then mark a dot every 3.5" down each side line (you could get away with marking down just one of the side lines instead of both, but I would recommend marking both for better accuracy).

3. Connect the dots diagonally as shown below in the next two pictures (click to view them larger).

4. Use your rotary blade and straight edge or scissors to cut out all the triangles you just marked. Lookin' good - Yay!

5. Place two triangles of the same fabric print right sides together and pin.

6. Starting on the short edge of your triangles, sew 1/4" seam around, leaving a gap on the short side for turning the pennant inside-out later.

7. Clip your corners, being careful not to get too close to your seam. Turn your fabric inside out, carefully poking out corners, and press. Fold the bottom of your pennant up to make a pocket large enough for your string and seam allowance (this seam will be edge stitched). I made my pocket 3/4". Press to make a crease.

8. Fold your bottom corners up and in against the crease you just made. See picture below.

9. Fold bottom up along the crease again and pin.

10. Edge stitch the side of this pocket closer to the top triangle point to close. Use a safety pin to guide your string through the pockets of all your pennants, making sure they are all facing the same direction.