Completed: Bunting for the office

Fabric buntingI’m still too tired to tackle complicated projects so I made something I said I’d make months ago: bunting for our office. We decorate the desks of people that have their birthday but the decorations that we have are old, worn and tacky. Some of it is only held together by adhesive tape.

Fabric buntingOne day, (much) earlier this year, a colleague and I were hanging up all the stuff and discussed that it would be nice to get some new decorations and I figured I could easily make some fabric bunting that would look loads better than the plastic bunting we’re currently using. Of course, I never got around to actually making any until this weekend.

I used 3 fat quarters for the flags and some Kona Pepper for the bias tape.

  • Trellis turquoise from “Bonjour mon ami” by Amanda Murphy for Blend Fabrics
  • Yellow “Swirl basics” by Windham Fabrics
  • Wine from “Sophia” by Blank Quilting
Prym Wonder Tape

I love this stuff…

Here I got the idea to use iron on hemming tape to attach the flags to their ribbon instead of pins. I can’t believe I didn’t think of this myself and while I don’t have iron on hemming tape, I do have Prym Wonder Tape. This stuff is amazing. It is double sided adhesive tape that you can sew through. I usually use it for installing zippers so I don’t need to struggle with pins. For the bunting I used it to stick my flags in between the folded bias tape and this worked like a charm. The tape doesn’t stick so much that you can’t reposition it but it is sticky enough to be used instead of pins.

Now, I really want to continue with my next Lady Skater and while this dress is easy to sew I’m still in the process of improving the fit even more and for that I do need my thinking cap on. Hopefully I’ll get it finished by next weekend. I want to wear this dress and cross another UFO from my list.

Fabric buntingWhat do you do when you are tired? Do you stubbornly continue with the project you’re working on even if the next step is to tackle that welt pocket that you’ve never made before? Do you, like me, switch to something easy or do you simply not do any sewing?

December 15, 2013

Emmely Treffers

About Emmely

I am a sewing enthusiast from the Netherlands. I live in the Leiden area with my husband and two daughters and I am currently working as a senior researcher in molecular virology. With my quilting patterns and sewing blog I want to infect as many people as possible with my love for sewing.

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4 Comments

  1. ottonshaberdashery

    Thanks for your comment! Nothing like a bunting weekend – the adhesive tape idea is genius! Lovely post 🙂

    Reply
    • Emmely

      Thank you! The adhesive tape was an absolute time saver.

      Reply
  2. onedabbles

    The bunting is lovely and such a nice idea to celebrate work colleagues’ birthdays.

    I haven’t been as productive with sewing as I’d like in the lead up to Christmas. Because I’m very new, I need my thinking cap on all the time when I sew! (Perhaps that should be my next project – A Thinking Cap!)

    If I’m not really too tired, just procrastinating because there’s a tricky bit to do, I try and sit and sew, even for five minutes, to get over the hump or keep some momentum going. If I really am dozy/stupid/tired then I don’t do it. The last few days I’ve picked up some very simple knitting instead. I hope to get to the stage where I can sew some simple projects – perhaps have more than one project on the go for that reason.

    Reply
    • Emmely

      Once you get more experienced things will become more natural and you won’t have to think as much before each step. I also choose easy projects like a pillow case or bunting when I’m tired because with these projects it doesn’t matter so much if I mess up a little bit.

      Reply

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