Upcycled Vintage Linen Bunting Tutorial

Repurposed Embroidery ~ Tablecloth Garland DIY!

It's been a year since my last post, but I have been kept busy!  I  gave up teaching in 2016, when I was manoeuvred into being a carer for my husband's parents, and it turns out looking after the elderly takes as much time and emotional energy as full-time teaching, marking and preparation!  

I can now only muster the time to sew 'special projects' and this is one of those.  Last month a very lovely friend gifted me the most amazing stash of material and vintage linens.  His father has recently died and so David and his sister have been house clearing - The females of the family were extremely talented needlewomen and I have been honoured to receive work created by his mother, aunt and grandmother.           

Look at the tablecloth above - It is absolutely beautiful!  It can seem strange to cut up such gorgeous pieces of work, but as so few of us now use tablelinens, these family heirlooms risk being tucked away in a drawer never seeing the light of day!  By repurposing them into new items they can once again be enjoyed on a daily basis.  

Bunting garlands are very easy to create, if you can sew in a straight line you can make one.  Even if your seams aren't quite straight....then simply embrace your very own shabby chic boho vibe!

Tutorial

The first step is to choose the shape of your bunting flags, this will depend on personal choice and the design and size of the embroidery on your vintage linens.  Just to get you started, here's some ideas;

         

I wanted to stitch up two strings of bunting, so that David and his sister could each have a set.  The two tablecloths I picked out to use suited quite different flag shapes and sizes, but the same method was used to create both. 

Once you've decided on your flag shape, the next step is to make a template.  Now maths and geometry are not my thing so there's no chance of me using a set square and protractor or even a ruler ~ instead I just created my templates in Word.  Simply open a new blank document, click on insert shapes, pick the one you want and then flip and drag it your heart's content!

Now trace your flag template onto a piece of clear acetate, you can either do this straight from your computer screen or print a paper copy first.  

Tip: I keep the clear windows from cardboard packaging (giftsets, toiletries etc) for just this purpose, it saves me money and acetate needs separating from cardboard before it goes into the recycling bin anyway!

Next, gently press your antique linens and if they've become thin from countless years of love and use, stabilise by applying iron-on interfacing. Mark out your first bunting flag using the clear acetate template to select your favourite areas of embroidery (fussy cutting) and then cut out. Repeat for the desired number of flags.

Using the template and lining fabric, cut out flags for the reverse of the bunting. Place right sides together with linen front pieces and then machine stitch around three sides, leaving the tops open.

Trim seam allowances, clipping across the bottom point, to reduce bulk

Turn the flags right sides out and gently push out the point using a chop-stick or other blunt instrument. Trim off the little ‘ears’ at the top to create a straight edge, then press.

Unfold a length of co-ordinating bias-binding and place the flags (approximately 1cm apart) inside it. Remember to allow some spare tape at either end of the bunting garland so that it can be tied or hung in its finished position. Machine stitch into place using the fold line as your guide.

 Now fold the bias binding over to the back of the garland and hand or machine sew into place (Alternatively, for a quicker, easier and cheaper finish, simply fold and press a length of ribbon or plain tape in half and then machine stitch flags into place). 

And that's it, a beautiful bunting garland, full of love and memories!

Perfect for an Easter Party or Spring Wedding!

Baby blue lace bias binding perfectly accentuates the delicate Forget-Me-Nots 

All done, ready to be gifted back to the original seamstress's grandchildren!

It was such a pleasure to be able to bring a family item back to life, all too often these amazing linens end up being thrown away or sold in charity shops and car boot sales for mere pennies.  They also make stunning zipper pouches, quilts and bag, I shall be keeping my eye out during the summer car boot season ready to rescue even more! 

Vintage Linen Bunting Tutorial

Antique Embroidered Garland  

Now I'm not known for being overly sentimental but there is something about antique embroidered tablecloths and tray covers that makes me want to swoon!  I think it's the combination of their great age and the hours and hours of work that first went into creating such gorgeous works of stitched art. I don't know how ladies in the 1940s and 1950s found the time to produce them, although the lack of television and internet might have been a contributing factor!

Vintage linens regularly turn up at car boot sales in all kinds of condition and I find that table cloths often show the most signs of wear, particularly in their centres, where crockery, cutlery and hands would have constantly rubbed against the fabric. However the edges, where the embroidery is normally to be found, is usually in far better condition having hung below the edge of the table top and therefore avoided such friction and wear.     

Once the centers are full of holes they're clearly no longer suitable for covering a dining table and besides, in our house, a tablecloth would need washing and ironing after every (messy) meal!  

Instead the perfect project is to stitch up some gloriously shabby chic bunting - Every upcycled garland produced is totally unique and it feels so good to breathe new life into these forgotten treasures!

If you're feeling inspired, I've written an easy to follow tutorial, with step by step photos, over at the Cuddly Buddly blog

Vintage linens are also perfect for pouches and purses.  This kitsch 'Crinoline Lady' was too large for a bunting flag but she works really well on a little patchwork makeup bag.

I love the Spring colours, and they still look as fresh as the day they were first stitched.

You can read more about it here, and having watched episode three of 'The Great British Sewing Bee', I'm feeling very grateful that my sewing is done on a modern Bernina machine, although those antique Singers are so charming. Do you think Mr Larkin would approve of me buying a fifth sewing machine because 'it's pretty'?!

Another string of my upcycled vintage bunting was featured in Reloved Magazine.

The full blog post is here.

The original stitched designs on the tablecloths I used were each so different but I love both sets of finished bunting equally.  I gave one set to my mum and the other is hanging in my kitchen where it reminds me of English summers full of village fetes and weddings!

Happy Repurposing!

Caravan Heart Applique

Cuddly Buddly Design Team

It's almost time for September's Design Team Challenge over at Cuddly Buddly and I suddenly realised that I hadn't even blogged August's!  Summer always seems to push blogging into the background as I would much rather be outside in the fresh air than sat inside in front of a computer screen.

Anyway, the theme was 'Thank you' and I stitched up a little appliqued 'Thanks for the Memories' hanging linen heart.  The weather has now taken a turn for the worst and it feels almost autumnal, so I would happily indulge myself with dreaming of British summers spent in a cute little caravan!  I based the applique on this digital stamp which costs just 99p from the Cuddly Buddly store.

It was a quick project to stitch up and I used the same basic pattern as I created for this owl hanging heart which you can read about here.

I'm also intending to stitch up some Christmas versions, as I love to see decorations created in classic linen hanging from the tree!

In the meantime there's a full  tutorial over at Cuddly Buddly, with easy step-by-step photos, so you can get stitching one of your own.

Enjoy!

Embroidered Linen Heart

Appliqued Owl Ornament

Fiona from CelticThistleStitches hosts a "Ho, Ho, Ho and on We Sew' link party each month and I really must take part, it would be great to avoid my usual last minute December panic!  I'm planning some little linen Christmas hanging hearts and had a quick practice this afternoon;

I wanted to ensure that I was happy with the basic size and design before stitching the Christmas versions.  This one was very quick being the same applique and colour scheme as I used for one of my Easter egg cosies;

The cute owl is based on one of my favourite Handmade Harbour digital stamps and I love how he stitches up.  The antique mother-of-pearl button came from my Great Granny's button box and the hanging ribbon came into my possession at the weekend as it was tied around the gorgeous bundle of linen sent to me by Judith.  The lace trim was another car boot buy and I have loads of it!

I now need to start thinking about the Christmas versions - I might even get some finished in time for June's August's Link party!

Linen Needlecase

Appliqued Needlebook

Some of you might remember this little linen needle book which I made a while ago, it proved quite popular, so I thought I would whip up another one.

Upcycled Linen Needlebook 

I get a bit bored repeating designs however, so I put pen to paper and came up with a new version;

An appliqued sewing machine with a little pin cushion!

Raw edge applique is one of my favourite techniques and I love how a little bit of black stitching really brings a design to life

If you look really carefully, you can even make out the words 'Needle-book' on the printed fabric;

This fabric is part of the Sew Retro range by Makower UK and the linen is from the same pair of upcycled curtains which I bought from a car-boot sale last year.  In my last post I mentioned that I am more than ready for the better weather to arrive so that I can begin to replenish my dwindling fabric stash but look what arrived in the post yesterday...........

.....a huge pile of the most gorgeous pure Irish linen.  It came courtesy of the wonderful Judith over at Just Jude, if you haven't yet visited her stunning blog then you are in for a real treat.  Her creations are as beautiful as she is!

Appliqued Needle Book

Free Hand Machine Embroidered Needle Case

After a very wet week the rain finally stopped today and, as the sun came streaming in through my study windows, I was to be found happily stitching away creating this cute little needlecase.

As ever it's very much an upcycled project and regular readers will recognise the linen as being from a second hand pair of curtains which I have used for numerous previous projects.  The wonderfully kitsch floral print fabric was also sourced at a car boot sale and I just love its vintage vibe!

The adorable mother bird and babies work perfectly with the soft pastel colours and were based on a digital stamp designed by the very talented Wendy Massey over at 'Handmade Harbour'.  If you feel inspired to create your own applique or papercraft project with this cute stamp you can purchase it here.

The case has two large pockets on the front and back inside covers which are just the right size to hold a few essential sewing items such as embroidery scissors, unpicker or skeins of yarn.  I'm going to use it as a little travel sewing set and it will certainly be an improvement on the ripped plastic zipper bag I normally shove in my pocket!

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and the curved corners and top-stitching give the whole project a nice finished appearance. The word 'needles' was embroidered onto the front using my regular sewing machine and a technique known as free-hand or free-style machine embroidery.  This is basically a method of 'drawing' with your sewing machine by lowering the feed-dogs and then moving your fabric to create wording or designs.

Needle cases make great presents and my niece has just started sewing, having saved up her own money to buy her first sewing machine.  I'm sure she would be delighted to receive a case with her name embroidered on it xx

"Martha's new machine"

A little bird told me.....

Upcycled Fabric Journal Cover

My niece has just started her first term at Nottingham University, so I thought I would mark the occasion by stitching her a journal cover.  I altered the original design a little, so that it included both her university and field of study as well as her name.  The birds were created using raw-edge applique and freestyle machine embroidery.  The writing is also freestyle (freehand) machine stitched.  It's such a great technique, no wonder Kirstie Allsopp has described it as 'the crack cocaine of the crafting world'! 

 

Yes, Ellie is off to study Politics at Nottingham and we're all very proud of her. Although, I can't believe that she is old enough to be going!  I can still remember how excited I was when I first went off to university and how much I valued getting letters and parcels.  I'm not sure that people send so many letters these days and today's youngsters could easily miss out on the thrill that comes from checking the post each day.  With this in mind it was lovely to stitch a little gift to package and send.  I purchased an academic diary to pop inside the cover, but ensured that it was not such a snug fit that she couldn't swap it for a notebook or journal if she preferred. 

The lining was cut from this adorable piece of soft vintage cotton lawn in muted tones of pink and blue,

as you can see it's a 'Laura Ashley' classic from 1977.  I'm sure that to Ellie this will seem absolutely ancient!

  

The cute design I used is extremely versatile and is both easy to sew and very effective when finished.   

Well done Ellie xxx