Top Tips For Christmas 2012 – #1

Like many of my friends, I have been struggling with Krusty Allsorts and her Vintage Home programme. Good grief, doesn’t the woman know the word ‘thrift’? I cannot imagine spending fifty pounds on a set of knobs for a chest of drawers!

And as for having your fabric hand printed before you cut it up to make patchwork…well!

But for KA, CK and friends, bunting is still ‘on trend’ – the Lakeland stuff [above] will set you back £12.99 for 210cm. Or make your own!

Here's the bunting [double sided] I made for Liz and Jon last year – Christmassy one side, African print on the other

Here are my top tips for making your own – easily and cheaply
My first tip is about proportion - make it 5 units wide by 8 units deep [inches, centimetres or multiples of either] as I have found that seems to be most pleasing in appearance. Draw a T-shape 5 inches across the top, with an 8” vertical line, and make that into a triangle. That’s your pattern – make lots, out of scrap paper. And for most economical cutting out, put alternate pieces upside down on your fabric. [Apologies if that seems obvious to you- but not everyone knows that trick]

Second tip - leave a gap between flags - equal to the width, or half the width, of a flag. That makes the bunting much easier to hang, because you can use the spaces to loop over curtain rails etc] and is more economical in terms of fabric.

Third tip - leave a good length of tape [between 30cm and 50cm] at each end for tying.

Fourth tip – [which should probably have come first] – decide if this is going to be long lasting, precious stuff which you will dig out year on year, or a quick project to last a few weeks. If the former, take time, and hem and sew neatly, if the latter, then cut out with pinking shears and forget about fancy finishing off!

Here’s the crib sheet I made for friends who needed yards of the stuff, very quickly, last March [I did that using 6 x 8 triangles for some reason!]

Fifth tip- if you want to add any lettering, then use bondaweb to applique the letters – quick, effective and unlike glue it allows you to reposition if you get it wrong!

Final tip- afterwards, wind it round a piece of cardboard – it will store tidily – and be so much easier to hang up next time!