Getting The Bunting Ready..

The sun is shining and we are all hoping that this summer is going to be hot. With Bank holidays, the Jubilee and the Olympics what better way to get ready for a truly British summer than by getting the bunting ready? Or at least starting it in plenty of time!

According to Wikipedia, Bunting was originally a specific type of lightweight wool, used to make flags and ribbons. It was used to make signal flags for the Navy, and the officer responsible for raising the signals was called a “bunt” Today it can be seen in vintage fabrics, papers and plastic. It can be as easy as cutting out coloured paper and attaching it to ribbons, using glue or even staples. I am going to show you how I make bunting. It looks beautiful as the flags hold their shape well in the wind and last out in the rain, it is a British summer after all.

Beautiful Bunting

How do I know how much to make?
I normally expect to have 3.5 flags per meter. When I measure the space I want to bunt I add 20cm per meter if I want to swag my bunting. So if a window is 2 meters long. I make 2.4 meters of bunting. That’s 9 Flags, 18 triangles of fabric. If worried, make more, you can always cut off the excess bunting, or use somewhere else.

What do I need? 
To make the bunting you need some fabric, wonderweb seam tape, an iron, sewing machine and bias binding or ribbon.


Ready Steady Sew…

How the bunting triangle will look.
The green lines show the finished size. 

 Firstly I draw my template for the flags. Easiest way to do this is to draw a straight line 26.5cm long. At the top of this line mark 12.5cm either side to make a T. Now draw the diagonals to meet at the end of the line. All done! This flag will give you a seam allowance of 1.5cm. Remember you can make your flags any shape, even make them smaller if you need to.

Now cut out the flags from the fabric. I make my flags double sided so you will need to cut two fabric flags for every flag on the bunting.

Cut the wonderweb tape to the same length as one side of the triangle and fold the fabric over the top to make a crisp edge. Iron the folded edge in place following the directions on the packet. Repeat on the other side.

Next take the two flags, wrong sides together and stitch about 5mm from the edge. Repeat as many times as you need to.

When ready start laying the flags onto the bias tape and pin in place. I tend to leave about 10cms between each flag. Have some fun and work out if there is a pattern to the flags before you start sewing. Think about colours and textures. That’s all there is to it.












 I often hang the bunting out, but for the jubilee I’m planning something special, I’ll keep you posted.

This was for the World Cup Breakfast we hosted.

Halloween, during the day...

And at night....