DIY Bunting Decoration

Hey Guys!

I recently completed my little summer project of making my own bunting for my room. 

So I'm going to tell you how I did it so you lot can have a go if you like!

To start you'll need a selection of fabrics. Luckily, my mum loved the idea of bunting and bought me these beautiful patterned ones!

She also found some yellow gingham fabric in a sale bucket for about £2 for a load of it!

You'll need about half a metre of each, depending on how long you want the bunting.

Next, cut your triangle template onto card. Mine was 18cm wide by 21cm down, and there are plenty of templates online to print off.

Then you need to draw around the template onto your fabric with a pencil. Make sure your fabric is folded and it is the wrong side (the one without the pattern) so you don't get pencil marks on the finished triangle. 

To save on fabric, line the triangles up next to each other like this to cut them.

Useful tools to do this are a tape measure, a ruler and a pencil. 

Another useful tool is pinking sheers, this prevents the fabric fraying which means you don't need to do oversew each edge.

Start cutting straight on the lines of the triangles.

Once you have a triangle cut, you can start straight sewing about a centimetre around the edges, keeping it as neat as poss. You can pin the sides together to make it a bit easier, but I used thick fabric so there was no need.  

When you get to the point, reverse sew and go over it again to ensure when its turned inside out, the inside edge doesn't come out.

Turn it inside out and you should have something that looks like this.  

After a few, it starts to take shape!

Next I want to do a few letters on the triangles. I'm going to do my name. 

I found these templates online, make sure when you print them out that the size is OK for your triangle. 

Draw around the template onto the wrong side of a different fabric.

Cut it out. 

To save space you can line straight letters up neatly.

Right, for some reason I didn't photograph this bit so I'll try my best to describe!

Before sewing your triangle pieces together, place a letter on the right side of one of your pieces. 

As neatly as you can, after pinning or tacking your letter, do a zig zag stitch around the edge of the letter. 

Once you've done this, put the right sides together and sew your triangle pieces, turn it inside out and voila!

Next, you'll need a hefty amount of bias binding. 

Fold it.

And place the top edges of your triangles in the fold and pin. 

Then sew along the edge of the binding as neatly as you can in a straight stitch. Be sure to leave about 4/5 inches between each triangle. 

And there you have it!

Your very own bunting!

Hope you like this DIY and give it a go yourself!

DIY: Laptop Cover

I've been trying to find a laptop case for ages, after a while I'd had enough, so when I came home for easter, I ventured into the study and found all my old A-level textiles stuff. I thought I may as well save money and make one. And if you want to try one too, here's how....

1) Find the material: I found some nice material that my mum used for blinds in our old house. Kind of reminds me of Erdem's T shirt material for Topshop, which I loved. Another thing you can use is canvas bags, I have quite a few lying around which I got free from various shops (Primark, Mulberry, Topshop)  and most have nice patterns on them. 

Cut it to an extra 1 inch either side of your laptop to leave room for seams and a zip. Mine is 13 inches and so I cut it to 15 inches wide. You will two of these pieces, one for each side of the case. 

 2) Get some wadding: I had some lying around the house, but it's really cheap to buy from your local fabric shop, and you shouldn't need much. It helps cushion the laptop to avoid breaking when there bumps and scrapes. I also used it as a quilting affect on the material. 

Cut two sides of this out, the same size as the patterned material your using and pin one to each side. 

3) Decorate: My material has a pattern on it, I used my sewing machine to do free embroidery around the shapes and define the lines, it also gives the case a bit of definition and a more 'artsy' look. You can do this with any pattern and if you don't have a sewing machine, try it free hand. 

4) Measure and Overlock: I drew around my laptop with chalk and then made sure there was enough room around the edge to fit it in, I then sewed around the edges and overlocked using a zig zag stitch. Leave the top side as this will be where the zip is placed later. You will definitely need a sewing machine for this part, so if you don't have one maybe pass it on to a friend or relative who can do this for you quickly.

5) Attach a zip, I used a white 13 inch zip and hand sewed it as tightly as possible to the edge. You will need to pin it in place first, and you may even want to tack it quickly to secure it even more.

6) Put a lining in: Use two sides of plain white cotton, both 13 inches wide, sew around the edges (except the top) and place it into your cover. Then fold the top edge by about a centimetre and sew to the top near the zip on the inside, by hand, as neatly as you can. You can skip this part out if you want, but it does make the inside a bit more attractive. 

And there you have it! Your hand made laptop cover in 6 easy steps! It's saved me money, it looks pretty and now I don't have to carry my laptop in a plastic bag to uni! Bonus!