Summer bunting DIY

Remember those piles of triangles? They've now been turned into bunting. Here's what I did:

First of all, I made a template from cardboard. You can download one from here.

Then I set about cutting out the triangles. I drew all my triangles onto the fabric using a fade-away fabric pen and used pinking shears for this as it also finished the seams at the same time- win!

I then sewed the triangles together, right sides together, clipped the tip and turned then the right way around using a gorgeous bamboo point turner. Now it was time to press, press, press ad nauseum. First all the triangles and then the cotton tape which I pressed in half. 

I cut 3m strips of the tape for my bunting which meant I could fit 15 triangles on every string and still have a bit of extra tape for tying the ends. Once I'd done the pressing, I got to pinning the triangles inside the tape.

In hindsight, I would definitely recommend basting the triangles into the tape over pinning as this didn't attach them very securely so some of the triangles moved whilst sewing, giving my seam ripper an outing or two (or more).

Once I'd finished pinning the triangles, it was time to sew a long straight line. One more press and ta- dah! we have bunting.

Have you ever made bunting before? Will you try using my tutorial? Would love to see how they turn out.

PDF template for the triangles.

Daddy's t-shirt to boy's top

Hello and happy Father's Day to all the daddies! I can't believe our house is already on it's second

father's day. Oskar surprised daddy with a father-son breakfast this morning:

As befits the day, I thought I'd show you what I've been doing with the t-shirts that get a bit too tight for Mykal. You guessed it- they get turned into Oskar's shirts.

First, you need a pattern. You can either buy a proper one, like the Flashback Skinny Tee from Made by Rae, or just copy something that already fits. I decided to copy O's pyjama top for this.

I folded it in half and traced the front and then back halves onto some pattern paper. I also traced the sleeves in halves which worked fine.

So now I had a pattern to work with. I made up one top which turned out nice but did show where I needed alterations (reduced width and added an inch of length). And voila- my messy pattern pieces were ready!

I cut out the pieces, ensuring the t-shirt image stays in the middle of the new shirt. I cut the sleeves from the t-shirt sleeves which saved me from finishing the edges on those.

A word on neck binding- on t-shirts where the stretch of the jersey is completely gone the neck hole may need to be a bit wider for smaller children (O is one)- sadly the robot one doesn't go over his head so will have to remake that one (red raglan sleeves anyone?)

Now if only I could catch the little blighter wearing one of the shirts...

I'd be very happy to post the pattern I made for my 1 year-old if anyone's interested.

*** Update: caught him on camera. Here's my little man striking a model pose in his new tshirt: