Baby name bunting

This weekend I had the joy of joining some friends as they celebrated their little boy's first birthday. I wanted to make something as a present, and I decided I would try to make some personalised bunting, decorated with their baby's name.  Fortunately the result was as good as I could have hoped for.

I have written previously about my attempts at making bunting from card.  This time I went for fabric bunting, using calico for the triangles. I had some fabric left over from the cot quilt I had given my friends the year before when their son was born, and I used this fabric for the lettering.

If you want to have a go at making something similar, the process is pretty straightforward:

* Decide on your size of triangle - this will dictate the size of your letters.  Make a template.  Draw and cut out (remembering to leave seam allowance) your triangles from the calico.  I find tailor's chalk really helpful for this.
* Draw and cut out templates for your letters.  Think about whether you have anything that can help you with this - I used a cookie cutter to help me with the star (I had to scale down the size a bit).  Once you have the templates for the shapes, cut these out from the fabrics you have chosen (think about choosing colourful fabrics that will stand out against the calico).  Small scissors help here!  I never throw away templates - you never know when they will come in handy.
*  Attach the letters to the calico triangles.  I used Bondaweb for this; I found it made the appliqué process a lot easier than my previous attempts at this skill, and I think it makes for a neater result.  It's very easy to use.  Using your templates you draw and cut out the shapes you need from the Bondaweb, iron these onto the back of the fabric pieces, peel off the backing and iron the pieces into place on the calico triangles.  Keep the edges neat by overcasting on a sewing machine.
* To make each bunting flag, take one decorated triangle piece and one plain triangle piece, lay right sides together, pin and sew along the two side edges (not the top).  Trim the edges, especially around the point, press the seams, and then pull through.
* I made my own binding to sew along the top of the bunting flags, but you can buy bias binding, or you could use ribbon.  I pinned this in place, folding it over the top raw edges of the flags, carefully lining up front and back edges, and then machine stitching into place.

I am really pleased with the finished result, and this will certainly be a project that I will be trying again.