Ara has been away at gymnastics camp at Woodward West and in her absence she asked that I make bunting for her room. I hadn’t used my sewing machine in a very long time and so given this request, coupled with all the extra time on my hands with an empty nest (Rémy went too for BMX biking and Skateboarding), I set about it.
I raided the fabric boxes – many haven’t been touched since my handbag making days back in New York. I made a quick selection of Liberty prints and included the old pants I have made for Ara that she has worn out – literally! I spent a little time working out the order that worked best with the various prints and colors for the flags. I made the simplest pattern, with the seam up the back of the flag and the front clean of seams. I pinned the brown paper pattern to the folded fabric, right-sides together. The fold will end up as the mid point of the front triangle. In the photo above I am using a leg of a pair of pants and placed the fold line along the French seam – this will be the front center line.
To use this pattern feel free to copy the image above and re-scale to the desired size. My bunting was 10 inches from a to b
I wanted to include letters on Ara’s bunting – ARA A GYMNAST – which, with spaces, makes 15 flags. Feel free to keep it simple and not include the letters. To make the letters I used Liberty print bias binding that I fell in love with last summer when I was lucky enough to shop at Liberty on Regent Street in London.
Ribbon, plain bias binding or cut out fabric all work just as well. Carefully place each letter on the flags and stitch in place, keeping in mind the fold line is the center of the flag and the point is down.
Once all the letters have been stitched in place fold the flag along the fold line (a to b), right sides together and then sew the seam from b to c. Trim the seam, press and then turn right side out, pushing out the point and then press again.
Trim the tops of the flags so they are straight and then attach the flags to a long piece of bias binding or a ribbon – I spaced my flags out with an inch between each one. Then I put two tiny picture nails in the wall and tied each end to hang the bunting.
Ara got home and loved it. She added her own little touch with the string of heart lights. So pretty.
My instructions for decorating her room was to look inside her dollshouse – this is what I found as my inspiration:
And this is how it ended up – every room needs an elephant, the one is an Eames elephant I found on Fab and of course we can all use some Liberty bunting to brighten up our lives.
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