The bunting is done!

Bunting you say? Bunting, banner, flag thingamabob it's just a prettyifying gizmo for celebrations such as the birthday we'll be celebrating tomorrow for a certain six year old. I have been wanting to make one of these for a while but as usual kept putting of making fabric choices when the first birthday of our official birthday season slipped by without the banner made. Then I saw some gorgeous ones made by a couple of friends and that lit the fire under me again.




These are not my typical color choices or prints but I love how very carnival they look together. The kids can't get enough of the banner and Kid 2 has already asked if we're going to break it out for his birthday in January too. Of course! I left the flags plain since we had plenty of prints and I wanted to have the option of putting up the banner on non-birthday celebratory occasions (Grandparents are coming! Groundhog Day! Friday!)




I did make this harder than it should be. For some reason I have this thing about sewing things that will last for our grandchildren to use because by the time I'm done with a project I usually don't want to make another for years. Yes that's the ADD and I own that. I knew I wanted to make the triangles double sided so I planned on using fusible interfacing. Well I didn't have enough of the weight I wanted to use so I perused the stash and found a cream colored super soft brushed twill and lined the triangles with that. I printed out a template that maximized the amount of triangles I would get out of a prewashed fat quarter. The finished triangle is about 5.5" wide at the top by 9" long. Then I cut, cut, and cut some more. Layered up my two outer fabrics with the inner lining then sewed, sewed and sewed. Lots of pressing, clipping points, turning and topstitching later, I was left with a colorful stack of triangles that my oldest would pet each time he was in the sewing room asking, "momma can I use these?"




Then I had a panic moment. There were 50 triangles each about 5.5" wide and I calculated 120" of bias tape that I would need to buy. Obviously my brain was out to lunch that day as math is typically not an issue for me. Next for some reason, I thought each package of bias tape had only one yard inside and I bought three. Seriously another mistake? I panicked, then furtively looked up an old tutorial for making continuous bias tape and another tutorial for pressing it into double folds without the need for a bias tape maker and began the cranking out of 300" of bias tape. From scratch. As I begin the step of cutting the tube of bias tape into one continuous strip I see the neglected packages of bias tape and the "3 YARDS" written across the front of the package. Doh! I quickly did the math (correctly this time) and abandoned the homemade stuff to begin the final sewing of the bunting.




I used my adjustable bias binding foot for the first time and it was a breeze. I did get a little bit of rippling at the end due to impatience but otherwise this foot allowed for precision stitching very close to the edge of the binding. This was the first time I've applied bias binding to anything and when I use fold over elastic I tend to use my regular zig zag foot. I haven't been able to stop photographing the bunting because of all the vivid colors. That will teach me to stray from my comfort zone more often and now we have a family item to use for the years to come.