Reversable Scrap Party Bunting (or banner) - Tutorial

I made this in the course of about 45 minutes from start to finish, including feeding kids and taking photos for the tutorial. I love these banners. They're bright, colorful, easy to make which is why I have no idea why they are so expensive on Etsy. I *heart* supporting handmade. I do not heart overpricing.

The hard part with the buntings (which I had no idea that was what they were called. I thought they were "banners") comes when you have different gendered kids. Trying to find a happy gender neutral colored party pennant can drive you batty. So, I made a reversable one. One side is girly, the other, not. Which means this will have to be hung where only the side you want shown shows but that's okay. Once you make one, you'll see how easy making another is and your house will have streamers all over the place for every holiday, birthday, event and day of the week. If you can sew a relatively straight line and cut a mostly straight line, you can make a really nice bunting.

I grabbed my two gallon ziplock bag of scraps and made a triangle template. The larger the triangles the less you need for the same size space. Mine are 6.5"w x 8.75" tall which I estimated would give about a 6"x8" finished triangle.

Cut out equal number of triangles for each side of the bunting. You can make this as short or long as you like. I found that doing a number divisible by 2 worked well so I can hang it evenly. I was able to use all scraps save for three triangles.

Pin right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam allowance along the two long sides of the triangle.

Clip off the tip of the triangle making sure you don't clip off the stitches.

Turn right side out and use a blunt tipped point to poke out the triangle tips. Iron flat. You can also sew again around the edges of the triangle if you want to really secure them together but I chose not to do this.

I used double fold quilt bias tape to string them together. I found it on clearance a while back. It's not a color I'd ever bind a quilt in I don't think. Clearance makes me buy stuff I don't really need but in this case it worked out.

Fold in the corners to form a triangle, then fold that into itself and pin in place.

Pin each triangle inside the fold of the bias tape and pin down.

Add the next triangle. I used my cutting mat as a guide and placed each about 2" apart. 

 

Sew it down the fold on the ends then straight across the bias tape with about a 1/4" seam allowance. Make sure you have those triangles pushed all the way against the fold in the tape so you don't miss any edges. Clip your stray threads and Wah-lah (I have no idea how to spell French) you're done!

Boy side

Girl side

It's machine washable and folds down small enough to store with ease. I'd love to see the buntings you make with my directions! Party on, crafty friends, party on.