We have collected quite a variety of bits and pieces over the years, and inevitably some of them are getting a little past their best.
One of our main decorations are some orange and black paper chains, although they are rather faded now and have the occasional tear - well they must be 30 years old.... But I have not seen anything to replace them to my satisfaction in the shops. Many of the decorations these days seem to be cartoony or cute and I wanted something a bit more ..... I dunno really.
Anyway, I had an idea. I could make some special Samhain/Halloween bunting!
But first of all we needed some suitable fabric. So off we went to our local Boyes store, which is a department store selling everything from discount clothes to kitchen ware and wallpaper, to craft supplies, fabric and wool!
I love looking at all the bolts of fabric on the shelves, there is so much to choose from. And we found four different coloured netting fabrics printed with spiders webs, stars and moons and pumpkins, just right for this project. So we bought a metre of each and carried them home in triumph. - I may also have bought some wool ....
The first step was cutting out the bunting shapes. I didn't want plain triangles, I wanted them to have spooky, wiggly edges. I also wanted the shapes to be fairly large, so I needed to make sure I got as many as I could out of each metre of fabric.
I did this by cutting the shapes alternately from one side of the fabric to the other, so they made interlocking wavy triangles. Also I couldn't figure out how many I would need for a string of bunting, so I made as many as I could from each piece.
As you can see the concept of 'triangular' is rather a loose one, but you can see how the shapes fit together, the top of one becoming the bottom of the next.
Once I'd got them all cut out, I sewed across the top of each to make a channel we could thread some cord through. And on Sunday morning, Graham and I sat and threaded them onto long cords, with a knot between each piece to help keep them spaced out.
It turned out I had made loads too many - there were certainly well over a hundred in total. It took me a few hours sewing away with my ancient hand sewing machine - I have tried electric machines, but they go too fast for me, and my old Singer machine can sew anything from silk to leather, so it suits me.
So here are the finished strings of bunting, all hung up in the living room.
I have actually got some shapes left over, so I could make another couple of strings if I want to.
It will soon be Samhain!
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