Children’s Bunting Tutorial

I made this bunting for my children’s birthdays … although it IS still hanging in the living room. This reversible bunting has interfacing for stability but also helps when you hang it in front of a window. You can hang it the other way with no letters showing through for plain FUN!

Items:

9 fat quarters for flags
1/4 meter solid for letters (.3 yards)
one package of double wide bias tape
double sided fusible webbing
computer with a word processor (openoffice or word etc.) and printer for letters
x-acto knife or scissors for paper
fabric scissors or rotary cutter
iron
a straight edge (ruler)

Here are the colors I chose for the flags. You can use one solid consistent color for the letters or many different would also look nice.

Print your letters from the computer and cut them out. You don’t really need a computer, you can just draw them freehand on paper. My letters are approx 4″ high x 2.5″ wide

Place the letters on your letter color with a layer of iron-on double sided fusible webbing and cut.

 

Cut the width of the fabric to 13″ and the height to 11″. Yes it says 14 and 12 on my mat BUT the bottom right corner of the fabric is not at the 0 mark, its at 1.

Fold the fabric in half. With the fold on the bottom cut from the top to the bottom corner. You have to push down hard. You can always open it up and cut the triangle with two cuts.

This is the result of the last cut

This is what your cut fabric should look like when you open it up. Base is 11″, height is 13″.

All 9 of my flags are cut. Make sure you set them in the order you want to see them in the end to get a good loook. Alternating a mostly solid and then a print is more pleasing to look at. I also tried to make the color flow smoothly by incorporating a color from each flag before and after.

 

Iron on a letters with the bottom of the letter 7″ from the top.

 

Zigzag stitch around the letter.

Stack the layers right sides facing with interfacing on the backside of the letter.

Iron the interfacing in place.

Stitch 1/2 seam around the flag leaving a 2″ gap for turning. Cut the corners off to get better points.

Turn inside out, tuck inside the raw edges from the turning spot and iron flat.

Topstitch the outside 1/4″.

 

Place the top of the flag inside a wide bias strip and sew along the left edge of the bias tape. I used one package of double wide white but you can easily make your own.

 

Leave an itty bitty gap (~3mm) between the flags to help with folding when you put them away.

My finished bunting. Both my daughter and son are happy to have it hanging for their birthdays and I am sure it will hang at mine and my husbands as well.