"Bye, baby bunting..."

It's been a while, for which I apologise. I have two excuses. First, I've mostly been making the same thing. I'm in a bunting stage. First it was some Special Leaving Bunting (see below). Then it was name bunting for a friend's new baby and new baby's big sister, and then it was my favourite bunting of all (again, see below). So, not much to report. I've already shared my bunting making instructions, and these are really variations on a theme.

The second excuse is better. My sewing machine broke. It started to skip the odd stitch in the middle of making Special Leaving Bunting, and when I went to make the name bunting it became totally unusable. Into the shop it went, for what was meant to be 3 days and ended up being nearly two weeks. I missed it. A lot.

However, it is back and I finally managed to finish off a few projects, clear the desk a bit, and realise I need something new. And so, I found this site which offers PDF patterns WITH TUTORIALS at quite bargainous prices. This is big for me, because up to now my inability to follow pattern instructions has meant that most the things I make are designed through trial and error. I've just bought the very cute hoodie pattern, and I'm hoping to whip a few up this weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

But back to the bunting. This Special Leaving Bunting was a collaborative effort, made for a friend who at short notice told us she was moving to the other end of Britain. No time to make a quilt or something more elaborate, but there was time enough to rally the troops to make a triangle of fabric which was then strung together to make bunting. Of course, they all outdid themselves. I'd been expecting plain bits of cotton but they crocheted, appliqued, painted, embroidered, and adorned with style. In the end, we had a massive string of bunting with lovely messages written on the backs of the flags, and I think she did like it. If you are after a group project, this is a good one - how nice would it be for a wedding/christening/birthday/anything?

That finished, it was time to tackle my Favourite Bunting of All Time, aka Alphabet Bunting. It is, really, as it sounds. It involved a lot of applique and some dictionary searching (J and N were very tricky!) but in the end, I'm really pleased with it.

If you want to make something similar, here are my tips and lessons learned.

1. I made rectangles rather than triangles just so I could fit everything in. If you wanted triangles, I'm sure it could be done if you used just upper or lower case letters.

2. I bought the cheapest white cotton I could find - 2 metres of it - for making the flags. It ended up being curtain lining and £4/metre for 100% cotton - not bad. However, if I made this again I would buy a slightly higher quality. This stuff ravelled like mad.

3. I used black felt for the letters. Felt is very forgiving when you applique, and it meant if my stitches weren't exactly on the edge it didn't show up, and if I missed a bit I didn't have to worry about it fraying.

4. Use an assembly line approach to the applique. Do all the pinks/reds/yellows/blues at once so that you don't have to thread and rethread your machine more than needed.

5. Cheat. In the end, I used fabric pens for a lot of small details. It saved me from going completely crazy.

6. Think about your images. As well as being easy to applique, it helps to have things that are relevant to your kids. I struggled most with the letter N, thinking nappies, nose, and finally Nessie which I thought would be great - but then the kids might see it as a snake, monster, serpent... We were just back from New York so in the end that won. I also wanted things that made the sound of the letter, so as much as I wanted Owl for O, Octopus won.

Once the bunting started to come together, I realised it really would have made a fabulous quilt. Only the low quality cotton and felt letters kept it from becoming a blanket, but I may well make this again as a present. For someone I really, really like. It was a really fun project, though - one I was almost sorry to finish.

A quick catch up.

It's been a bit quiet on the blogging front. I've been finishing old projects and working on lots and lots of presents. I feel a bit funny blogging tutorials for things I've made as presents, but I'm more than happy to answer questions if anyone wants to try any of the below!

So, here's a quick run through of the last few weeks in photos, and not so much a tutorial as an idea shared for a baby shower present you can make.

First up, this top secret present has now been posted, received, and is therefore safe to share. Made for a very good friend's baby, said baby had the nerve to show up 5 weeks early, thus throwing all my plans to have this there for his arrival! It was quite a basic quilt top, but then I decided to try my hand at free motion quilting. Definitely not as easy as I'd hoped it would be. Quilting this thing took...a very long time. And many, many broken needles. By the end, though, I was barely breaking any (as opposed to the first few inches which used up 7 in the space of half an hour).

I love this quilt - simple, bright colours, and the backing is possibly my favourite fabric ever. I may well make this again, but there are a few things I'd do differently...

Finished quilt

Close up of the quilting

Quilt backing

The finished book

 Next up, we have a project that was born out of a baby shower. We wanted to make a collaborative present for the (second time) mum-to-be, and I'd originally thought this would be a blanket. I asked everyone at the shower to draw a wee picture, and was going to turn them into appliques for a fleece blanket. However, the designs didn't really lend themselves to one blanket scene, so I then thought it would have to be a patchwork quilt. And then, the idea of a book hit me.

This one is made of unbleached cotton, and the appliques are as many different textures as I could find, from soft fleece to bumpy corduroy, to scratchy linen. I hope baby likes reading it as much as I liked making it.

First pages
 

Original drawing, and the resulting applique

Giraffe!

I was most proud of the cat's eyes

And finally, a special request for a friend: a couple of rounds of name bunting, for a pair of sisters. I love making bunting.

More exciting (?!) tutorials to come but for now, I have to finish this last thing that's been keeping me busy. I call it the Quilt of Doom and really, that's a story for a whole other post...

Bunting

Bunting is everywhere just now, and when you see how easy it is to make you'll understand why. There are lots of different methods you can use for bunting, and I'll give you some cheats at the end, but here is my favourite way. Takes a bit more time, but it's still definitely possible to make a metre or so of bunting in one nap.

You will need:

• fabric. Cotton works best. You probably want at least two complimentary colours or patterns, and I would say no more than four but really, go mad. Anything goes. How much depends on how long you want your bunting and how big you want your triangles, but I tend to buy 20cm of whatever width it is and start with that
• satin bias tape, the length that you want your binding to be
• thread to match your bias tape
• an iron
• a sewing machine
• rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler - not essential, but very useful

Step 1: draft your pattern (ie. draw a triangle)

Using newspaper or just a sheet of A4, draw a triangle. I like mine to be no more than 7-8 inches across the top, and about 8 inches up to the point. Experiment, though. For Christmas, I made strings of tiny triangles, about 4 inches high, in green and red gingham to hang on the Christmas tree. You could also try combining big and small triangles.

Step 2: cutting out

Fold your fabric in half, position on your cutting mat (if you're using one), and cut out your triangles! As a rough guide, I would use between 9 and 12 triangles in 1.5 metres of bunting so you'll want to cut out about a dozen pairs. You can mix and match patterns to make triangles that have different fronts and backs, or just stick to one pattern per pair.

Step 3: sewing the triangles

Machine sew your pairs down the two long sides, leaving the bottom edge of the triangle open. Snip the tip so that you get a nice, neat point. Turn them inside out, and press them. Once they're all sewn, I tend to line them up on my cutting mat and trim the bottoms (and by that, I mean the bottoms that will actually be the tops when they are hung) so that they're all even.

Step 4: assembly!

Set your machine to a zigzag stitch. Leaving a length of bias tape at either end to tie your bunting, begin positioning your triangles inside the bias tape. You can put them right next to each other, leave a gap, or alternate with smaller triangles. Pin them in place.

Once they are all pinned in, slowly start sewing the bias tape closed, with the triangles stuck inside (like the filling in a bias tape sandwich). Make sure you sew the complete length of the bias tape, so that you have nice ties at either end.

And, you're done! Hang and enjoy! 

Cheats: to make this even easier, try some of the follow. Instead of sewing the triangles together, cut them out with pinking shears - either one layer or two - and attach them to the bias tape as they are. Sew your triangles directly onto a piece of ribbon rather than bias tape. Cut triangles out of felt - they won't fray, and they don't require any sewing!

My bunting bedecked craft table, July 2010

Additions: try adding bells between the triangles for festive bunting, or have hanging shapes or pom poms. Applique letters or shapes onto the triangles. Make your own binding in a complimentary fabric. Open it up and fold the raw edges in towards the centre fold. Press again, and use instead of bias tape.

Bunting themed quilt, May 2011

The Joys of Applique

Honestly, I don't know what I did before I appliqued. To think I spent a whole year of sewing without it! Here's what I've been up to this week. Both presents have now been handed over, and are thus safe to share.

For a beautiful wee girl, what better than name bunting? I actually really like this, and it may become my standard new baby gift. It can hang above the cot when baby is born, and make appearances for birthdays and special occasions throughout baby's childhood. If you're expecting, expect to get one of these from me!

And for another special baby who is being baptised this weekend in Hungary, what better than a name blanket? This was done in very soft, creamy coloured polar fleece. I finished the edges with a blanket stitch using pale green yarn, and attached the flowers, leaves and letters with bondaweb (using a damp tea towel, as fleece melts under an iron!). If you don't know how to blanket stitch (I didn't), then check out this video, complete with soothing music. It's easy as pie.

I then stitched the flowers and letters in white, but used green for the leaves. It does show through on the back, but it was so much better on the front that it's worth it.

A bit time consuming, but definitely not tricky. And I hope they make their special little owners smile.