Birthday Banner

I couldn't let the Pooches & Pickups scraps from Leo's birthday shirt go to waste, so I made a penant banner/bunting/garland to decorate our porch during his party.

For Louisa's first birthday, I made a "party garland" from this tutorial on purlbee, which uses several shapes (all edges raw) and invisible thread. Unfortunately invisible thread doesn't hold up so well. Although I was able to use it again for her second birthday, it broke in several pieces and tangled very easily. This is the best picture I could find of it:

So this time, I used bias tape instead, roughly following this tutorial, although I didn't have pinking shears. I think I prefer the unfinished edges.

I made two different sizes of triangles. The larger ones are about seven inches long and six inches across the top, and the smaller ones are four long and four across. Almost all of them I cut as two layers, right sides out (with the exception of some solid broadcloth that didn't have a wrong side, so I strung them individually).

I pinned the triangles to the edge of the binding in completely random order, with just an inch or two between each flag. Then I stitched, folded the binding, and top stitched through all the layers with a contrasting zigzag.

I was particularly excited that I made this project entirely with things already in my stash (the reds and oranges were from some Amy Butler quilted potholders I made for gifts one Christmas). The bias tape was actually a package of old brown quilt binding that I cut down the middle and refolded, to make it six yards of 1/2 inch instead of three yards of one inch.

Super easy one-hour project! It is still hanging on our porch because we like it so much.