https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/tiny-bunting-beads • Posted by Smallest Forest
Nothing says “Fiesta!” like colorful bunting flags hanging all over town… Another quick way to use up fabric scraps. I dreamt these tiny stringable fabric bunting flags up just before falling asleep last night, and spent a quick hour this morning making some, to see if the idea would work. The sort of thing you can make using junk from around your home…I found everything I needed just rummaging through my “crafting junk” boxes. Can be made with colorful scrapbook paper, too, as decor, though I don’t know if I’d wear paper bunting—wouldn’t look good for very long, and the sharp points might be irritating to the skin.
Nothing says “Fiesta!” like colorful bunting flags hanging all over town… Another quick way to use up fabric scraps. I dreamt these tiny stringable fabric bunting flags up just before falling asleep last night, and spent a quick hour this morning making some, to see if the idea would work. The sort of thing you can make using junk from around your home…I found everything I needed just rummaging through my “crafting junk” boxes. Can be made with colorful scrapbook paper, too, as decor, though I don’t know if I’d wear paper bunting—wouldn’t look good for very long, and the sharp points might be irritating to the skin.
Cut a length of double-sided tape and place it on the sheet of wax paper or baking parchment. Fabric Bunting Beads
Using the marker, draw a triangle on the tape’s backing paper. Center the flag’s point (roughly) and run the two diagonal lines all the way to the edges of the tape. You can making the bunting triangle as short (squat) or long (narrow) as you like. The marker ink doesn’t stick very well to the tape’s waxy backing paper…it’s okay, you just need an approximate idea, anyway.
Measure the length of that first flag, and mark out the rest of the tape to the same length…that is if you want uniform-sized flags. You might want to go for a wonky, uneven bunting, in which case, measure out whatever different lengths you wish.
Cut the tape up along your drawn lines, keep the pieces on the baking parchment for easy access later.
Take one piece of tape and stick it to the wrong side of your fabric scrap.
Fold the fabric—the end with tape on it—over so that the fold lies right along one short edge of the tape.
Cutting through both layers of fabric at the same time, trim the fabric scrap right up to the other three sides of the tape. Don’t trim the edge where the fabric is folded.
Here’s your little rectangle of fabric, now, with tape over half of it.
Peel back the tape’s backing paper.
Lay your plastic tubing on top of the fold line, with the tip of your tubing going all the way to the edge of the fabric rectangle.
If you centered the tubing properly, part of it will touch the double-sided tape, and you can now pick the tubing up in one hand, and wrap the two fabric flaps around the tubing.
Try to make sure the two flaps of fabric line up edge-to-edge…especially the far side of the flag, opposite the tubing. If the left and right sides don’t match perfectly it’s not a big deal, you’ll be cutting those sides off, anyway.
I did a few more of these, side-by-side, on the same tube…
(Sorry about the inky fingers, I got the permanent marker, from the first steps, all over them!) Using a strong pair of scissors or a craft knife, cut the fabric flags free. Try and cut the tubing right up to fabric, so the plastic doesn’t show.
Starting from the center where you want the sharp point of the flag to be, cut first to one side, and then to the other, on a diagonal that ends at the edge of the fabric, just before the tubing.
And now you have a little flag that you can thread onto some cord. Alternate them with chunky, colorful beads, if you like. Now you can go to the Fiesta! Thanks for viewing my tutorial. I would very much love to see how you use these beads! If you try this tutorial, please post a pic of your finished work in the Comments section. Thanks!