Bunny Bunting

I saw this link on Facebook a few weeks ago and fell in love the idea of bunny bunting. http://www.poppiesandpolkadots.co.uk/spring-easter-bunny-bunting-a-quick-easy-how-to/

I haven't worked with linen before but decided to give it a go. I picked out a browny/grey from my go to fabric shop to begin with but later spotted a charcoal grey elsewhere that would be more effective with the patterned fabric I picked out for the bunnies. (Don't worry this fabric definitely didn't get wasted - keep your eyes peeled for a future bunting post.) I would say when you're buying fabric however if the shop is reliable at cutting the fabric square/straight you only need to buy 40cm - beware not all fabric shops are very good at this, I find quilting shops cut more precisely whereas general fabric shops are more of a cut and rip kind of measure.

 

 Perfecting my rotary cutting skills I managed to confidently measure and cut my bunting triangles. I then printed the template on the above blog and traced it multiple times on to some double sided iron on interfacing. This made cutting easier and more accurate. I also got more shapes out of the fabric as could think about placing. It also made attaching the bunnies to the bunting easy - peel off the backing paper, place on bunting triangle and iron on - simples!
A tip to make peeling the backing paper off easier - before ironing the webbing/interfacing onto the fabric rip into the design. Once ironed on and cut out, peel from the rip - It makes getting hold of the backing paper easier and makes sure you just peel off the backing paper and not the glue too. 

 

The pom poms on this pom pom trim were the perfect size for bunny tails and brought a short strip. I cut the pom poms off the trim and stitched each one by hand to make sure they were secure - totally worth it for the effect. 

 Being my first attempt at bunting and over enthusiastic to produce something I didn't stitch round the bunnies - I will next time. Instead I went straight on to pinning the 2 triangles for each flag (one with bunny and one plain) right sides together and stitched down one side to the point and up the other, leaving the top unsewn.

 

 Using bias binding to finish the top means you don't need to stitch the top of the bunting triangles as they are sandwiched in the binding. Taking care to leave some bias at the beginning I carefully attached the first flag and continued to stitch over a 10cm (so there is a nice row of even stitching all the way along the bias binding) before inserting the next flag. 6 flags gives approximately 1.5m of bunting.

My only regret, is in my haste to see them finished, I did not sew around the bunnies before attaching the tails and making up the flags/bunts. This lesson has been learnt as you will see in the next post, keep a look out for more bunting!