DIY Bunting from Map Paper

Whether you have some amazing paper that you need to find a use for or have lots of scraps that you can’t bear to through away, bunting is such a cute thing to create and even more so if you can personalise it. We needed something for our market stall to tell people who we are and I found an old atlas that was falling apart in amongst my things and inspiration struck!

You will need:

Thick paper (I used the pages of an atlas)
Scissors
Spray adhesive
Ribbon
Silk pins
Sewing machine

1. First thing I did was create a template onto plain paper to the size of the bunting I wanted, mine was 20cm wide and 25cm long. Then I used this template much like a sewing pattern to cut the atlas pages to the size that I needed.

2. I openly admit that I’m not the best at freehand typography, my handwriting isn’t that pretty and I’m very good at freehand lettering so I found a font I liked online (in this case, KG Hard Candy Solid – free to download!) and printed a template.

3. I cut out each letter with scissors and used spray adhesive to adhere them to the bunting triangles.My printer is pretty old and rubbish so I also coloured in each letter with a black sharpie once stuck down. I left two triangles blank for the spaces in between words.

4. I knew that our stall was 2m wide so cut two lengths of cream ribbon to 2.5m – this gives enough to tie at each end. You will need to adjust this to your own intended destination.

5. Mark the centre of each piece of ribbon with a pin and mark the middle of the centre piece of bunting now pin the central piece in with the centres lined up. I used silk pins so that no marks were left in the ribbon. Note that if you have an even number of pennants you will need to position the centre of the ribbon in between the two middle pieces.

6. Working outwards pin the rest of the pennants in place.

7. Sew along the centre of the ribbon on sewing machine. You can do this freehand but I’m lazy! Only sew to the end of the pennant, this leaves the ends free to tie around things to hang easily.