Show & Tell: Birthday Bunting Banner and Party Hats

I’m excited and flustered…. and embaressed.

My basket tutorial was posted over at whip up (yay!) and people are stopping over to my humble little blog. But I’m so ashamed at how empty it is! It’s like moving into a new home and inviting the neighbors over, only I don’t have anywhere for them to sit because the furniture hasn’t arrived yet.

So to everyone who has come to welcome me to the neighborhood I appreciate your patience. As a new blogger it’s going to take me ages before my online home has any of the substance and finesse of you other fine folks.

In the mean time I’m going to finish up the subject of the Birthday Package that I sent for my neice’s birthday. The baskets were the last part, before them I tackled making a Bunting Banner and Party Hats.  Both of which I followed amazing tutorials from other bloggers, with a few changes of my own.

I have a confession… the Bunting Banner= my first sewing project. It took me about 10 minutes to thread the machine when I started, by the end I could do it with my eyes closed. Maybe with a little peeking.

When my sister was just starting to think of planning Kimmy’s birthday I had come across an amazing tutorial for a birthday banner at Pickup Some Creativity. I quickly swindled her into NEEDING a bunting banner for the party and offered to make it.

Follow the tutorial and anyone (I’m proof) can have a super cute bunting banner in no time.

I took my very first trip to the fabric store (Luke was very patient as I owwed and awwwed over all the options) and picked out some coordinating fabrics.

Then I got to work sewing all of the triangles.

Here is where I deviated a little. I wanted the letters to really pop (and I had found the cutest black and white fabric on a second trip to the store). So I cut 2 1/2 inch circles out of fabric and sewed those onto the triangles first.

And then I sewed on the letters exactly as instructed in the tutorial.

After completing all of the letters (I might have adhered the a’s on backwards the first time, which might be a warning to not try and do sewing projects late at night with out the appropriate amount of caffeine).

I started sewing them all onto the Bias Tape. Which I found after a third trip… or was it a fourth?… to the fabric store. In the tutorial all of the triangles are sewn onto one piece of bias tape, I decided to divide mine in two. I measured 12 inches of my bias tape, started laying out the triangles and measured another 12 inches at the other end for each piece.

I also didn’t do the basting stitch recomended in the tutorial. I did a regular old stitch on the inside as well as the outside of the bias tape. I just don’t like having to rip out all those stitches. It looks fine this way, really you can’t notice.

This was a great first sewing project. It was straightforward and so clear with the great instructions from Pickup Some Creativity. And so rewarding, look how cute it is hanging on my wall. I can’t wait to see pictures of it in all it’s glory set up for the party.

The party hat tutorial came from Crap I’ve Made. I didn’t have the party hat mojo flowing and I had an illogically difficult time with these. I ended up having to make my own templates, one for the fabric and one to cut out cardstock for the hats. I could have bought the hats premade like Char at Crap I’ve Made… but making them was faster than a trip out for me.

I added a special detail for the birthday girl’s hat with a 2 1/2” felt circle and 2 made out of the same fabric from the banner. The little party hat on the 2 is simply a small triangle of the pink fabric sewn onto the hat and a small tuft of green yarn glued on with Fabri-Tac.

The pom poms were made using this tutorial from Kids Craft Central. Simple enough, repetitive, but simple. Ignore the squashed nature of the pom pom in the upper left corner, that was from the 2 hat sitting on top of it.

Hopefully my small additions will make Kimmy’s 2nd birthday a fun filled day for her.

Thank you for stopping by and taking a look at what I have to offer so far.

Please come by and check out all the new Tutorials, Show & Tells, FYIs and On the Lists posts as the blog grows. I’ll do my very best to fill my home with lots of interesting and useful material for everyone.