Bunter, Buntress, Buntle, Bunting ?

Bob was trying to find a word for someone who makes miles of bunting. We have ruled out “Bunter”.

Billy Bunter aka “The Fat Boy Of The Remove” may have been popular for the first half of the 20th century, but now he is definitely out of favour, for so many reasons.

“Buntress” is slang for an ugly woman “Buntle” is urban slang for ‘little bits of grit that get between your toes, then deposit themselves in one’s bed”. And “Bunting Tosser” is naval slang for a signaller [can you confirm that one, Jane and Chris?]  None of these terms seems very polite. Whatever the term is, I have made 150 metres of the stuff now and I am calling a halt to the exercise!

But what’s this? This looks suspiciously like rows of rectangular pink and black bunting. But it isn’t – it is mass production tissue holders!

Steph wants to give each of the guests at her hen party a goodie bag – and so she and Liz have blagged a load of freebies from various sources [cosmetics and toiletry samples] and thought a handmade gift would be fun too. It doesn’t take long to run these up – particularly if you sew them in a line and trim later. I’ve done loads in the past and taught others to do it too. You can find loads of easy tutorials on the net, with ideas for personalising too.

One useful tip – they turn out so much better if you trim the triangle at each corner.

Some of my more enthusiastic pupils cut rather generously – and snipped a hole in the pouch.

So I taught the girls this tip – hold the corner with your finger and thumb just on the edge of the stitching, so that when you cut, you do not cut into the seam!

Turn them out, and load them up with little packs of tissues. Job done! By the way, my rectangles of fabric are 6” x 7”, and I sewed on the trim before sewing the final two seams.

I shall deliver these black and pink treasures to Steph next weekend, and possibly have some more handmade items for the goodie bags. Prototypes are under way [ok, they’re all over the lounge] right now. Poor Bob has abandoned all hope of me doing Proper Housework whilst I’ve got these many and various Wedding Projects on the go!