A-Bunting We Will Go

For my newly finished sewing room, I decided to sew a few buntings to hang above the bay window. Following a tutorial by pinksuedeshoe, instead of pointy pennants, I cut and sewed 29 of these 8"-wide, half-circle pennants, that show off my pretty aqua and orange prints. 

The instructions would have you clip those curves after you've sewn them. In fact, the curves need to be notched. Big difference! To notch, just pinch a fold of the seam allowance and clip through all the layers.

After notching and turning the piece right-side out, this is what it looks like on the inside of the pennant.

The outside curve needs to have space that allows the fabric to overlap on itself.

So if you're ever doing this yourself, wondering whether to clip or notch a curve, remember to "notch the mountain!"

When I was cutting and sewing miles 11 yards of bias-binding for stringing the pennants together, I knew it would be easiest to make the binding by pulling the fabric strips through a Clover bias tape-maker. Darn. I didn't have one the right size! 

But I remembered an old trick that I want to share with you. Instead of pressing the binding in half, wrong sides together, and then opening it back up to press each long side toward the pressed fold, do this. Pin two straight pins into your ironing table in such a way that the opening is the exact width that you want to make the bias strip.

In my case the pins are "woven" into the ironing table with a 2" opening.

After pressing those two outside folds, I folded the strip in half and pressed again. Lotsa bias binding to sew pennants together! Binding is made with the pretty Painters Canvas fabric in the color "sky."

Here's the before. Plain and boring.

The after is bright and happy!

Now to make a shower curtain for the guest bathroom. Company's coming next Wednesday! Linda