DIY: Birthday Bunting

Lobster’s 30th birthday is coming up at the beginning of September so I had the fabulous idea of hosting a party for him at our house in a couple of weeks. All of his closest friends will be there and I will be cooking and baking up a storm and probably spending a small fortune on Scotch (hubs loves the stuff…yuck!).

Since it’s a big birthday, I wanted to make the atmosphere as festive as possible. So I decided to make a couple of birthday buntings. I keep seeing them in party pictures around the interwebs and I think they’re precious. Not to mention they can be used over and over again (maybe a little boy’s birthday party someday?).

Supplies

Big bundle of 18X21 precut coordinating fabric from Wal-mart (in their fabric section)
2 packages of double fold bias tape in coordinating color
Sewing machine (not necessary if you use pinking shears and stitch witchery)
Thread of a coordinating color
Bunting pattern

First I downloaded and printed out the bunting triangle pattern from Chickabug.com. Really fun site. You should check it out.

Then I traced the pattern onto my fabric and cut it out.

I decided to use two pieces of fabric per bunting flag so that each side would be a finished side. This is not necessary, just a personal preference. So I sewed both pieces together using a zigzag stitch to attach the pieces to each other but also to prevent fraying along the cut edges of the fabric. If you have only one piece of fabric for your flag you can cut out the triangle of fabric with pinking shears to prevent fraying.

Once all my flags were cut and sewn, I inserted the flags into the open part of the double fold bias tape and pinned them all across the length of the bias tape.

Then I sewed the bias tape along the open end using the same zigzag stitch. Be sure to leave a good 6-8 inches of bias tape free on each end so you can use the ends to tie up your bunting.