Putting Some Swag in Your Holidays: A Flag Bunting Tutorial

Back in September Sew Sisters invited me to take the Kona Club Challenge! And what a good time I had. The challenge was to make something out of four Fat Quarters. Four FQs of Kona, which is what you would receive each month in the mail as part of their Kona Club. I made flag bunting and now (a bit late) I would like to share the tutorial with you here. I am breaking out these directions to make some Holiday-ee bunting for the house. Now is the time!

Supplies Needed

• Four Fat Quarters of Kona Cotton (or any other fabric of choice!)
• Thread – something that matches your fabrics
• A package of Extra Wide Double Fold Bias tape – totaling 3 yards. (you can make your own of course, but I wanted to make this project as quick and easy as possible)
• The regular stuff – scissors, pins, ruler, rotary cutter and mat, your sewing machine!

Kona Sky, Zucchini, Spring and Lapis were the July inspiration for Kona Club Members

I love that each FQ came with it's own label!

 Cutting

For each flag you need a rectangle measuring 6” x 7”. To get the most out of your FQ, start by folding the FQ selvedge to selvedge and cut three 6” strips.

 Then sub-cut the 6” strips into 7” rectangles.

Your will get 9 rectangles from each FQ.  You’ll need 2- 6″x7″ pieces per flag. This means that you will have one orphan rectangle from each FQ, but have no fear, you end up with 4 orphans, so put them together to make two flags. In the end, you will have 18 completed Flags.  

Now to cut your triangle, simply fold one piece of fabric in half so that it measures 6″x3.5″. Using your ruler, cut across from one corner to the other.

 

This turns your rectangles into triangles and each side of the triangle will measure approximately 7″. Cut all flag pieces this way.

Making the Flags

Take two triangles and put them together. If you were using a print, you would want to make sure you had right sides together.  

Take them to your machine and sew two sides of the flags with a ¼” seam. It does not matter which two sides you sew since they are all the same size!

 

 Once the triangle is together cut the pointy tip off making sure not to cut your thread. This will help you get a sharper point when you turn the flag right sides out.

Turn your flag inside out and use any tool you have on hand to push the point out. Some folks swear by chopsticks for this, I used the eraser end of a pencil - it was what I had on hand!

 

Once your flag is flipped inside out, give it a press with your iron and trim off the little excess fabric from the seams at the top.

Repeat this process, making your 18 flags – you will have four of each color and two with the orphans flags

Turn Your Flags into a Banner

Get out your Bias Tape! Starting 5″ from the end of your bias tape, starting pinning the top {raw} edge of each flag  inside the crease in the bias tape and pin in place. Each flag should be about 1/2″ apart from each other so that it leaves you 5″ of bias tape extra on the other side so you can tie the banner up.

 

Once you have all of your flags pinned in place, take the whole banner to your sewing machine and sew across the edge of the bias tape to close it and secure each flag in place.

And Voila! You are done. Take your fancy new Flag Bunting hang it up and enjoy!

I hope you has as much fun making these flags as I did. Now to pick out some suitable tacky Christmas fabric...

Adrienne