The majority of what I sew is clothes. I dabble in the occasional home decor item but in general, I sew clothes. Three of the five outfits seen below are my creations. However, for my daughter’s recent birthday party, I stepped out of my comfort zone and made something else. Party decor. I recently ran across this adorable idea in my Instagram scrolling. Appliquéd buntings! They took me a minute to figure out but were not tricky to make at all.
Often, when sewing clothing, I cut out the pattern and there is an awkward piece of fabric left over. It is typically one long rectangle that isn’t even big enough for six month old’s shorts. There’s not a lot that can be done with it… but ( as a true fabric hoarder) I can’t throw it away. So, I have a giant box of these pieces of fabric. I’ve had this box for years. Occasionally, I am able to use some for an appliqué on a shirt or for some piping, but I can’t use them as fast as I can make them. Enter, the appliquéd bunting. One of the most effective ways I have found to use up those pieces of fabric.
To make these, I used this file. It lays out the instructions very clearly but you can use any large appliqué file you have and an “in the hoop” buttonhole file. When you set up the embroidery design, just place two buttonholes close to the top of the design and follow the steps below. I must confess that before I researched making these, I had no clue what “in the hoop” meant. Apparently, it’s the name for the way I embroider everything, anyway. It means you hoop stabilizer, and then place an item to be embroidered on that stabilizer without hooping it. I suspect I’m the only person who didn’t know this was the correct terminology for this type of embroidery but I’m just throwing that out there in case I can help anyone else.
Onto the steps:
Step 1. Iron Heat n Bond Lite onto the back of the scraps of fabric.
Step 2. Hoop a sticky stabilizer, make sure to rip the paper part off of the stabilizer so the sticky side can hold the fabric in place.
Step 3. Place a piece of the scrap fabric right-side to sticky-side of stabilizer. The heat n bond side should be visible. Stitch out first outline stitch. Trim away the fabric as close to the stitch line as possible.
Step 4. Place a piece of craft foam or felt on top of that stitch line, and stitch another outline stitch, remove excess foam or felt. I think felt is the better option, I just had foam on-hand.
Step 5. Place another piece of fabric, heat n bond side down and right-side-up on top of the foam or felt. Stitch another outline stitch, trim away excess. Complete stitch out.
Step 6. Stitch out buttonholes and remove center using scissors.
Step 7. Repeat until the desired number of designs is achieved
Step 8. Place the designs on a string and tie a ton of ribbon on either end. I knotted the ribbon once and trimmed all the ribbon to the same length.
If you know how to use your machine to do appliqué, you know how to make these. I also made some as cake toppers. In this case, I removed the buttonholes form the top of the design and stitched it out without them. I then hot glued the finished appliqué to a chopstick, tied some cute ribbon around the bottom, popped it into the top of my cake and called it finished!
I suspect there are many ways to do these, this is just how I decided to do it. If you have another way of doing it, shoot me a message and I’ll share it!
PS. I have an instagram “highlight” with more pictures if you are interested.
PPS. if you purchase either stabilizer listed above, I will receive a small commission. Just want to make sure you know 🙂
