How To Make Your Own Recycled Bunting

Add a personal touch to your party decor with some homemade bunting.

Parties and celebrations can create a lot of needless waste. All those plastic and paper decorations invariably end up in the bin, despite time and money going into both making and buying them.

Making your own recycled bunting though is a great way to cut down on waste when another birthday, celebration or festive season rolls around, as well as allowing you to show your creative flair.

cutting the fabric for bunting

Here’s a step-by-step guide to make your own recycled bunting

Decide what size and shape you’d like your flags.

Make a template, either from paper or fabric, and fold it in half. Lay the folded edge of your template onto the folded edge of the fabric you want to use. Pillowcases, scraps of fabric, old tea towels, etc all work well for bunting flags. Cut out more flags, in pairs, according to your template.

recycled bunting

When you have the desired number of flags, sew them together, right sides facing each other. Snip the fabric out from the tip of the triangle, so that when you turn them through the tips are not too bulky. Be careful not to snip any of your stitching! Now carefully turn the flags inside out.

Now you can either iron them flat, or, if you’re like me and don’t have an iron, you can place some heavy books on them, or even sit on them for a little while.

Cut a long strip of fabric about 4cm wide. This needs to be as long as you want your bunting to be.

sewing machine

Fold each long edge into the centre and press flat. If you have an iron, it’d be good to iron these folds, especially if you’re a beginner sewer.

Now lay your flags along the centre of the strip, folding both sides of the long strip over as you sew, to encase the tops of the flags. I leave about 2cm between each flag, but you can leave as much or as little space as you like.

You can find the full version of this article in Issue #1 of Pip Magazine, which is available for digital download for just $7.50 here.

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