Swishing and Upcycled Bunting…

Tomorrow, we Swish!

Emma (from Wiltshire Wildlife Trust) and I have organised a Swish (clothes swapping with a posh name..) in Warminster tomorrow night (The Organ Inn, 7-9pm if you fancy it!) and to pretty up the skittle alley, we decided we needed some bunting.
Now, I have some bunting at home, that I made ages ago (no idea why really..) but it’s…well, just bunting.
What we need is Upcycled Bunting, Make Do and Mend Bunting, Bunting from Old Jeans Bunting!

So that’s why today’s blog post is a bit late.
True to form, I only decided we needed Old Jeans Bunting while cooking tea, so I then was trying to cut triangles out on the table while simultaneously cooking tea, entertaining one very bouncy Small (SmallSmall), and one significantly less bouncy, really quite nauseous Small (BigSmall :()…

But now it’s done!

And here it is.

And you can make some too!

This is what you need:

• Old jeans/denim skirts/jackets etc (please ask the Jeans Wearer’s permission first..)
• Triangle template
• Pen
• Ruler
• Pins
• Iron and ironing board
• Sewing machine and thread

This is what you do (it really is quite self-explanatory, but humour me…):

• Use your triangle template to cut out your flags-I just went with single thickness, as I am lazy and it was last minute, I think it will look more ‘shabby chic’. I used 3 different jeans things, and got lots of different shades of blue, which I think looks pretty cool (feel free to disagree)

• Save one leg of one pair of jeans to make your binding strip-use your ruler to mark out long lines, and cut them out

• Then sew your strips together to make one long strip. Place two ends of two strips right sides together at right angles to each other, pin and then sew across the square that they make (hopefully the picture will make sense of those rather useless instructions)

I have no idea why you can’t just lay them right sides together in the conventional manner, but this is what the book says, so I am not arguing…

• Snip of the corner of the square

• Open out your 2 pieces (now joined together) and you should have a straight(ish) line! Press the seams open

• Once you have joined all of your strips together into a disconcertingly long strip, then fold it in half (edge to edge) and press-if you were making ‘proper’ bias binding-at this point you would open it out, and press the edges back into the middle so that there were no raw edges on show, but hey, shabby chic….

Ta da!

• Then, pin your flags in place, and sew! I was hit with a flash of inspiration and cut out some old net curtain into flags to add a touch of vintage/lace/bang on trend (!)-ness to the whole thing

I would show you a picture of the whole thing, but hubby is out, and I can’t hang it anywhere suitable on my own, and I couldn’t possibly wait to publish this post until he is back. So I will add one later 🙂

I am, officially, well-chuffed with this.
What’s the betting no bugger notices my lovely upcycled bunting tomorrow night (rather like your own wedding, where you have toiled over last minute detail to get it just right, and no-one notices…).
Oh well, it’s entertained me, and it’s not as if I have anything else to do of an evening…

PS. If you are anywhere in the South/South-West of England (!) COME TO THE SWISH!
It will be fun, it is in a pub, there will be alcohol, you can walk away with a whole new wardrobe.
Why wouldn’t you come?!