Bunting (In-the-Hoop)

I don’t know what it is about bunting, but bright little flags of joy really bring a cheerful mood to any season. You mix that with Christmas and you have bunting worthy of serious cheer! This simple bunting has whimsical designs and raw edge applique to give it a retro look, and it’s easy to put together on your machine and just a few feet of bias tape!

Let’s start by cutting out our fabric pieces. To ensure your fabric won’t shift during sewing, we’re going to back it with some of your cutaway stabilizer. Lightly spray your stabilizer, smooth your fabric on top, and then place your paper dieline template on top of that. Use your template to first cut out your flag pieces.

Remember to cut a front piece and a back piece for each flag.

Don’t forget to cut out the little applique pieces that go along with each flag, in the same manner. You may also want to back these with stabilizer to keep them sturdy, unless you’re using a thicker fabric like felt.

This is everything I’ll need to make one flag. A front piece, back piece, and applique accents. You can choose to cut out all the pieces for the rest of your flags now, or assemble them one at a time. The process for making each one is basically the same.

Start by hooping up a piece of your tearaway stabilizer, and winding a bobbin that matches your chosen tackdown color.

Psst... do you dig my nails? I’m totally in the holiday spirit with that gold sparkle.

A dieline will sew. Lightly spray the back of one flag piece and place it on top of the dieline. A tackdown will stitch around the edges, followed by the regular inside elements of embroidery. Then, you machine will stitch a dieline marker for your applique. Spray your applique pieces and make sure they totally cover the stitched markers. Once they’re smoothed in place, a tackdown will stitch on top of them.

Wait, you’re not done! Your flag needs a back. Carefully take your hoop off your machine, but DON’T un-hoop it, and lightly spray the back of your other flag piece. Place it on the back of your front piece, so that the edges line up. You’ll also want to change the bobbin at this point. When you put it back on your machine, it will stitch that outline tackdown one more time to stitch the two sides together. When you’re done, you can tear your flag free from the stabilizer!

Repeat this process until you have all four (or more, if you want to stitch duplicates!) of your cute Christmas bunting flags.

Stitching them together is easy! Just fold your bias tape around the top edge of each piece and pin it in place. Leave a few inches in between each flag.

Sew a seam across your bias tape, stitching the two halves together and the flags to the tape.

And you’re done! Continue adding more flags to make your bunting as long as you like, or keep it short and sweet.

You can really mix up colors and styles to make each flag pop, maybe scouring that fabric stash for that vintage Christmas fabric you’ve been saving.

The simple and sweet style of this banner assures it will suit all kinds of fabrics and colors.

So dive into your fabric stash and make a merry bunting for the holiday season! No better excuse to craft than Christmas, am I right?