How to Make and Sew (Waterproof!) Oilcloth & Felt Bunting

Make some new bunting like our Gilliangladrag Fluff-a-torium Bunting!

Make yourself some new (waterproof!) bunting to brighten up your garden or home. It's quick, good value, and easy peasy!

What you'll need:

• Some Oilcloth - we sell colourful well priced Oilcloth by the metre here!
• Some Felt pieces - we sell Felt here by the pack or separate colours
• Ribbon for the top edge - check out our gorgeous patterned ribbon sold here
• A Sewing Machine / Needle & Thread / or some strong fabric glue like this
• Pompom Trim / Frilly Trim adds a great finishing touch! (optional)
• Crocheted / Knitted / Felted Flowers / Other Embellishments etc. (optional) 
• Sharp scissors

1)
Before you start work out the length you'd like your bunting to be and roughly how many pennants you'll need! Make a paper template pattern first if you like or go freehand - it's just a triangle where the top edge is slightly shorter than the other two edges :-) There are no rules about the size - cut them as big or as small as you fancy! Mine were about 20cm long.

Cut two triangles for each pennant so they will be double sided and you'll see colour from both sides when they flap in the wind!

2) Either stick the 2 sides of each pennant together with strong fabric glue, or sew them together freehand or with a machine if you have one!

     

3)
Add some Felt pennants into the mix too if you fancy. These obviously won't be quite as waterproof, but a light shower won't hurt them too much!

4)
Trim each pennant from both sides to make sure you don't have any white bits sticking out from behind!

5)
Lay out all your triangles on the floor or table and pin some substantial ribbon on top to hold them together, leaving about 20-30cm of ribbon free at each end for hanging later. Sew along the top and the bottom of the ribbon to hold the pennants in place securely, either using a sewing machine, or needle and thread. You could stick them too if you have some really strong glue.

     

6)
Add some optional finishing touches and embellishments - they make all the difference! Insert a length of frilly trim / pompom trim just underneath the ribbon, and sew into place.

7)
Crochet some pretty flowers to sew onto some of the plain felt flags if you fancy? Attic 24 has a great crochet pattern for daffodils here! We used our cotton Aran yarn for £1.95 a ball!

8)
You could also add in some cute Felt Flowers - like the ones in "Felting Fabulous Flowers" by Gillian here.
This is a Felt Rose, - also available as a kit here.

    

9)Hang your finished bunting inside or out, adding some support in the middle if it's quite long. :-) Et voila! xxxx

Free BRUSSEL SPROUT Felt Bunting Tutorial x

Let's face it - there's always the need for some bunting - whatever the occasion. And Christmas is no exception! So, - on with this easy brussel sprout bunting to help decorate your house in a fluffy Christmas way :-)

 

All you'll need are some simple bits and pieces: a large rectangle of red felt, a 38g felting needle and foam to work onto, some green ric-rac trimming, and some wool tops in mid olive, dark olive, and peppermint.

You can use some red ready made felt, (or you can make your own felt with our red merino wool tops and a mini bamboo mat felting kit) and of course you can use any colour you fancy  - not just red! A large rectangle will make you about 1 metre of small bunting, or use more felt and more ric-rac for a longer length.

Start by cutting the felt rectangle in half lengthways, and then cutting the long triangles as above. Doing it this way makes sure there's no wastage and you get as many pennants as possible...

Now for the needle felted brussels! Start by taking a small amount of mid olive wool tops and needle it gently into a circle about the size of a 2p piece in the top part of each pennant.

Next, needle a small stem to each brussel sprout, using the peppermint wool tops. You'll only need tiny amounts!



And finally add some tiny lines of dark olive wool tops, to make each brussel sprout look more realistic.

 

Once you've finished needle felting all your brussels, pin each pennant to the green ric rac and then sew - either by hand or on a machine if you have one, using some matching green thread.

 And that's all there is to it! Enjoy! 

If you liked this tutorial and you'd like to buy a felt bunting kit as a pressie - take a look at our great value "Scandi Bunting" COMPLETE felting kit (as seen on Channel 4 last week), which includes everything you need including a mat and net inside the packet :-)and costs just £15.95!

Happy Christmas Fluff-a-tiers! xxx