Lucky us, Stella from The Golden Adventures of a Very Dark Horse is guest posting today and has created a fantastic tutorial for homemade scallop advent bunting! Oh the treasures you could store in there!
Don't forget you still have time to enter our fantastic $200 crafty basket giveaway! View Here Closes 17th December open to NZ residents only :)
You will need:
- fabric of your choice. I used five fat quarters in these delicious designs via the Sew Pretty store.
- Plain fabric in the colour/pattern of your choice, to use as backing.
- Approx 3 yards of trim. I used this pompom trim, but binding or pretty ribbon would work just as well.
- A template for cutting out your scallops. Hand draw and cut one from a piece of card, to suit your size and shape specifications. I wanted my flags to be 4inches in width, with a quarter inch seam allowance. In the end my template was about 4 1/2" by 4 1/2", which allowed for seams and perfectly fit my 3 yards of trim.
- Fabric paint (normal acrylic will work as a substitute, as this project requires no washing) OR felt.
- (If you are using the paint option) A stencil with numbers - unless you are willing to paint these free-hand.
Note: I chose not to add letters to my bunting this year, so that I can use it for some upcoming celebrations, and because Eleanor cannot recognise numbers yet. Next year I plan to glue hand-cut felt numbers on using fabric glue.
Step one: Using your template, cut out 25 pockets from your chosen fabrics, and 50 pieces of backing using a plain fabric (I used white) leaving a extra 2" allowance for the 50 backing pieces (shown below).
Pocket piece.
L: Backing piece. R: Pocket piece.
Step three: Painting the numbers onto the pockets at this point will give the paint time to dry, and remove the risk of paint seeping through onto the backing fabric (which could cause it to stick, as well as looking messier). Alternatively if you are using letters cut from felt, now would be a good time to glue/sew them down (once you've done all that cutting out!). I would recommend a dab of glue, even if you are sewing them on, to hold them securely in place.
Step four: As soon as the numbers have dried, it is time to assemble the flags. First you will lay the pocket atop the flag piece - wrong side to right side - as in image A. You will then place the backing - right side to right side - atop both of those pieces, as in image B. You will then attach all three pieces together using a single hem, with a 1/4" seam allowance - as in image C, leaving the top open.
A
B
C
Step five: Snip around the curves of each flag, careful not to slice your hem. Then turn your flags right way out, using a knitting needle if necessary to keep the corners smooth.
Step six: Turn the top 1/4" of the exposed edges inside the flag, and press the entire flag (if you are using binding, it's fine to skip this step and leave the edges raw).
Step seven: Attach your trim/ribbon/binding to the flags, like so! And then you're ready to pop some little treats in!
Easy, if a little time-consuming with all those flags. But now you have the cutest advent bunting ever, and if you're like me, you won't want to take it down after Christmas. In fact, who says you have to?!
