In The Pink–But I’m Flagging!

Whatever possessed me? Why don’t I just keep my mouth shut? I’m eating my salad [please note that- salad – working hard to get my 5+ a day here!] when a colleague starts talking about her Fundraiser for Breast Cancer and where can she get a load of pink bunting?  “When is it? I can make you some!” I say, without really considering the full import of my words.

Was I

• thinking that I haven’t made any since last September, so need to make some more?
• feeling that I need practice, just in case Steph’s Wedding is to be a heavily buntinged affair? [I suspect it may be]
• deciding using up my pink fabric would help with the Great Stash Reduction campaign?
• affected by a mild case of brain fever brought on by too much sun combined with wisdom-tooth-ache?
• ignoring the incredibly busy month that is July, blithely imagining I can produce the six hours of free time needed for such a project from out of thin air?

Whatever it was, my friend jumped at the offer, and so I found myself up in the loft, sorting out a trug full of pink remnants.

Have I mentioned this acronym I learned the other week? “SABLE” = Stash Aquired Beyond Life Expectancy. I am determined not to reach that point! I will use it up.

I cut out about 100 triangles – 50 in pinks, and 50 from a remnant of Clothkits fabric. This is white with a pale pink/grey/green print. I never had the full length, just half the makings of a dress which someone gave me.

My original plan had been to make double sided flags, using the Clothkits print as the backing. But then I thought about it – this is for one 3 hour event, and is to go all round the garden. It would be more effective to make twice the length by alternating pink and white fabrics. By hemming with the overlocker, rather than neatly seaming two pairs of triangles together[like I did here] I did it!

I struggled a bit at first – I forgot to hang a carrier bag on the edge of the table to collect the bits, and the tension was all wrong [it is ages since I have overlocked anything] However there was a very helpful Bernina tutorial online, and I was soon sewing away happily. I decided to use up some random spools of pink and red overlocker thread to give an added prettiness to the edges of each triangle.

As I didn’t have any appropriate tape in the stash, I used 20 yards of old lace trim as the ‘string’ for the bunting. It gives everything a Cath Kidston sort of feel. I hope the event raises plenty of money for such a good cause – and that the weather is bright and sunny, with just the tiniest breeze to ruffle the sixty feet of bunting festooning my friend’s garden.