A friend of mine had a bridal shower recently, so to help with the decor, I sewed a bunting banner. I used burlap fabric (found at Hancock's Fabrics) to go with her rustic theme, and mint ribbon to go with her color scheme. It was a fun project, different from the usual things I make, but it did take longer than expected to make (perfectionist here).
I cut out large diamond shapes out of the burlap, butting them next to each other so
that no fabric was wasted when cutting. When the diamond shape is folded in half over the
ribbon, it makes the triangle shape. Before folding them, I used a
plastic letter stencil (from Michael's) and white fabric paint to paint
the letters (did the heart shape freehand).
These Wonder Clips I got for Christmas were super handy - much easier than pinning! You can kind of see in the photo below how the diamond shape is folded in half over the ribbon to make the triangles. You could also just do triangle shapes and just sew the tops to the ribbon, but by doing the diamond shape, you get a doubled up triangle and it just looked better to me for this.
Then I just sewed all the way around the 3 sides of all of the triangles. I kept double-checking that I was sewing the letters on in the correct order, beacause it would be just my luck to finish putting it together and have it be misspelled. I was thinking about writing this post as a tutorial, but it wasn't that complicated. I just figured out what I was going to do as I went along and it worked out well, having never made a banner before. But it turned out cute, and I think the bride might even use the banner as a part of her actual wedding decor.
A little while back someone reached out on facebook looking for volunteers to sew scrub caps for a local children's hospital. It sounded like a really good cause, so I was happy to help. I don't have an unlimited amount of free time to sew, and I usually stick to sewing projects for myself. Well, occasionally I'll fix my friends torn jeans, hems, etc. for a barter of baked goods (I'm easilly swayed by cupcakes and brownies). Last year I hemmed some school uniform pants for children that are staying at a local shelter and don't have the funds to make sure their pants fit them properly. Doing small things like that really do make you feel good, and something small that you do can actually be really huge for the recipient. It also makes you think about how fortunate you really are. So I had been thinking about what else I could do, and sewing these scrub caps just popped up.
I made 13 total, and hope to make more if there remains a need. I used some cotton that was gifted to me in a swap. It's a fun green swirly print, but I've learned that I don't really wear clothing made of quilting weight cotton, so it was better to put the fabric to use for a good cause. These caps went to the MUSC Children's Hospital. There's more info about volunteering projects through this link. Here's the pattern they provide for the scrub caps. There's also a pattern and instructions for blank therapy dolls. There are also opportunities to make pillowcases, as well as knitting and crochet projects. (And by the way, I just took up crochet! Well I'm attempting to teach myself. More on that to come.) I'm sure there are children's hospitals all over that would love to receive donations of sewn/knitted creations if anyone else is looking to contribute. A little selfless sewing is good for ya! ;)
