Handmade Heaven: DIY or Buy: Bunting garlands

Handmade Tutorial Alert!!!

Aimee Brock
19 October 2010

Bunting is still oh-so-trendy in nurseries and it’s also now gaining favour as a reusable decoration at birthday parties, instead of streamers. The best part about bunting is being able to mix and match a variety of patterns, colours and themes, without worrying about pattern clashes or going overboard. Making it even easier these days are the new generation of online sewing stores opening up, as well as ‘nana cool’ crafting and quilting stores, who stock ‘fat quarters’ (or half yard squares) of fabric, often in pre-chosen colour themed bundles.

There are plenty of tutorials teaching you how to make bunting online – Spearmint Baby has several on its site, as does Ohdeedoh. For the non-sewers out there, bunting can even be made without attempting to drive a sewing machine. Pinking shears (those scissors that cut zig zag or shaped edges) keep your fabric from fraying and then you can attach them to a ribbon, bias binding or string by folding them over and using a fabric glue, or a running hand stitch.

You can also make bunting out of paper instead of fabric, using the gorgeous sets of designer scrapbooking paper available instore at stationary stores or specialist scrapbooking shops. I also found a fantastic free downloadable bunting set online, which spells out every letter of the alphabet. By choosing my daughter’s initials and some heart spacers, I was able to make a bunting garland for her first birthday party to use as decoration, spelling out “Loren-is-one”. I used my sewing machine to sew the paper (slowly) onto ribbon but I could have just as easily pasted it.

If this all seems like too much hard work, but you love the idea of bunting, why not buy from a local crafter? Check out the many sellers on Felt, or the Birdspoke vintage pink garland for sale on FeltAID  (proceeds help raise money for the Christchurch earthquake appeal) – or go direct to crafters including Bam Bam Creative, Made It Baby, or HJRDDesign (soon to be Tinch Design Studio), who makes magnetic bunting wall art using fabrics and wallpaper.

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About the author:
Aimee Brock is a life-long admirer of handmade crafts and gifts, and recently started her own handmade children’s label, lily pad designs.