‘Eco-Friendly Bunting’ – it might not be something you think about, but bunting is quite common around the UK and the majority of it is plastic. Being so cheap it’s often just chucked out after it’s been used for a street party, wedding or birthday celebration. If you’re trying to eliminate as much plastic out of your life as possible then fabric bunting is the way to go. If you don’t have much time to make it you’re going to love this fabulously quick and easy way to make your own homemade fabric bunting.
What you need
- Material
- Ruler (optional but recommended)
- Chalk (also optional but recommended)
- Pinking shears
- String
- Safety pins or a sewing machine
The most important thing to do is to find material that will look good and that goes with your theme, if you have one. You can use a variety of materials that complement each other, just 2 different types or you can use just one pattern if you want. If you’re using something that has quite a complicated pattern with a giraffe here, an elephant there, a duck over there, just bear in mind that your animals might be cut in half!
I’ve chosen a very simple pattern in 2 different colours for my bunting. My first tip is to iron the material you want to use to make your bunting. It just makes it much easier for the next step.
The easiest way to make fabric bunting
1. Measure the width
Decide how big you want your bunting triangles to be. If it’s to be used indoors it can be a bit smaller. The material I’ve used has a pattern that includes lots of small circles. I measured 16 circles across for the top of the triangle.
2. Fold the material over
Keep folding the material over itself, ensuring that the folds are all equal width.
3. Draw chalk lines where you want to cut the material
Make sure you don’t fold over too many pieces of material because you want to be able to cut through them all at the same time. Once you’ve finished folding, use a ruler and a piece of chalk to draw lines where you want to cut. You don’t have to use these if you have a good eye, but this pattern was making my eyes go a bit funny so I thought it would be sensible!
4. Cut with pinking shears
Using pinking shears means your fabric is less likely to fray and it also hides any small mistakes. It’s much easier to spot a wonky straight line.
5. Discard the bits that aren’t triangles
At this point you can start to unfold the ‘side triangles’ and place them with your other ones in the middle.
6. Attaching to the string
The quickest way to finish off your homemade fabric bunting would be to attach it to the string using safety pins. Use one if you’re seriously short on time, or use more to make the bunting more secure.
If you have a sewing machine, it doesn’t take too much longer to actually sew the bunting triangles.
My tip. Don’t sew or attach the triangles directly to the string. If the string can still move you can adjust the positioning of the triangles to make sure they’re an equal distance apart once you hang it up. If you have plenty of time then you can secure the triangles to the string if you wish, just measure the distances between each triangle before doing so.
Once you’ve attached all the triangles you want make sure you’ve left enough spare string at the ends for tying the bunting up.
This homemade fabric bunting can be used indoors or outdoors if it’s being hung along a wall. If you plan on hanging it in the middle of the room or between 2 trees you might want to consider double sided bunting instead.
Store your bunting by placing each consecutive triangle on tope of each other so that you don’t get it all tangled and make life difficult for yourself the next time you have a party!
Having a celebration at home? Check out some eco-friendly alternatives to balloons for more environmentally friendly ways to decorate for any kind of celebration.
If you like what I do and want to support me, you can buy me a ‘coffee’ which helps with the running costs of the website. Alternatively come and say hello on facebook, twitter or pinterest.
