Can somebody explain bunting to me please?

You will need some kind of long strong ribbon for the bunting to be attached to and then you can use any fabric and your MIL can either do it single sided, this would be if its going to be used against a wall or something, takes A LOT less time and is litrally the fabric cut into equal triangles (probs best to use a stencil) and sewn onto the ribbon. However if you are using it across a room say where the bunting will be seen from both sides she will need double the fabric and need to sew the triangles back to back and then onto the ribbon so that the pattern is seen from both sides...i would get a few different fabrics that way if you run out of fabric and the shop doesn't have any more left you can always mix and match. try one of these 'pound a yard' fabric shops, you may find some nice material there for cheap!! x

Thanks both.

What sort of thickness does the ribbon need to be?

We made ours with 1" wide cotton tape - stronger and cheaper than bias binding BUT it's not pre-folded. Not a problem for OH as his sewing machine folded it for him (yes he is scarily domesticated!)

We bought all of our material from the local market - we bought all sorts, from stretchy velvet, cotton, lace (that was delicate!), netting, some weird textured shiny stuff - all sorts. Our colours are red, black and white so we broadly alternated those 3 colours, but the blacks weren't plain black - we had black with white spot, black with silver stars, black lace (so 'lighter') and so on. The white was lots of textured stuff, but also white with black music notes, white with tiny strawberries etc. Ditto the reds.

We made 280m in total - the most time consuming bit was cutting out the material - OH was a whizz on the sewing machine.

Erm...what's 'bias binding'?

Also I would disagree that the material has to be doubled up it it is to be seen from both sides - our material cost £50 as it was, and so expense and time-wise we couldn't be doing with doubling it up. We chose materials that looked good from both sides AND we continually switched front / back as we stitched on, so once it is hung, there won't be a 'front' or 'back' of it.

Here's a link to the cotton tape we bought on ebay - it's excellent quality and arrived quickly. We bought 1" wide so it was still a good thickness when doubled over. If you like, I can get some photos later of some of our bunting.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/White-Cotton-Tape-25mm-x-50m-Roll-Bunting-Apron-ETC-/200758580616?pt=UK_Crafts_Sewing_Supplies_MJ&hash=item2ebe24d588

Bias binding is like pre-folded tape - so the bunting triangles are sewn 'into' it (the tape 'wraps around' the top to give a neat finish) - but you seem to have to pay the price for it being pre-folded when most sewing machines make it easy to do yourself.

Ok, that makes sense, thanks 50's x

I'll see what the MIL is capable of then before I buy that.

How big should the triangles be?

Thanks for the link, that'll be really helpful. I'd love to see your pics if you get chance. Thank you x

I'll measure the length of ours, but there is no set rule - we went for 15cm width at the top and 15cm between each triangle - I think they must have been about 25cm long. Cardboard template and drew on with pencil before cutting out with fabric scissors. We were going to use those wiggly scissors which are meant to prevent as much fraying, but they were shocking (think our material wasn't right for them) so we decided to stick to straight edges as a bit of fraying might look vintagey ?

Your MIL may have proper dressmakers pinking shears that cut a zig zag edge, I have some they are fabulous but best on cotton.

Pinking shears, that's the name! We bought some proper dressmakers ones, and they wouldn't cut our material - they were ok with 100% cotton, but anything else (especially anything with lycra in) they just snagged and 'bent' rather than cut. We took 2 pairs back and exchanged, thinking they were faulty, and then gave up!

They really are only intended for cotton as they are to use along the seams on dresses to save having to edge them to stop them fraying, which you don't need to do on nylon or polyester etc