Backyard Bunting

As if the bunting in my house that I’ve thrown together since becoming the proud owner of a sewing machine isn’t enough, I decided that it was extremely necessary for me to have one adorn our backyard pergola. But I didn’t know what kind of fabric would work for the outdoors. In a hurry before leaving the house last weekend to purchase new twinkle lights , I quickly Googled outdoor bunting and, seriously, without even a minute to spend perusing the results of my search because my family was already in the car, my eyes glanced over and retained two options which were Oil Cloth and Reusable Grocery Totes. I don’t know what oil cloth is but understood it must be weatherproof (I would just go look for some at Hobby Lobby); and grocery totes was a cute idea, because I could easy cut them into the shape I wanted, but where would I find them in large quantity and on a whim and not pay too much for each one? 

Throughout our errand running that day, I hopped out of the car a couple times to run into different stores to check for either oil cloth or reusable grocery bags…Bed Bath and Beyond; Hobby Lobby; even Old Navy and Target. Nothing. However,  I did find out that Oil Cloth is expensive and easier to buy online. Well, I didn’t have that in my budget, nor the time to wait. So when we were strolling through Target, I suddenly thought about using a shower curtain! They often come in colorful designs and how hard could it be to cut one up into the shapes I needed? Not hard…

Please, read on, I will show you how easy it all came together! All for around $10!

Shower Curtain

I thought the colors and stripes on this clearance Shower Curtain from Target for $7.99 lent a lot of options for variety.

Diamond Shapes

I taped two triangle cut-outs together to make a long diamond shape that I traced around right on the curtain with pencil.

Stripes

I could get at least a dozen diamonds traced across one whole width of the curtain. 

Cutting Diamonds

The plastic was surprisingly easy to cut through. Kind of like when you get good quality Christmas wrapping paper and you can just zip those scissors right on through with no snags…that’s what it was like! Super easy and fast!

Triangle

  I folded the diamond shape in half and sewed a  straight stitch right on across! I had to make sure I was on the right track…The heavy duty rope came from Lowe’s, by the way.

sewing

 I was on the right track, but I decided to use the zig zag stitch instead of the straight stitch because, well, the straight stitch was down right ugly. Even Chris said so! It’s a different experience sewing a plastic curtain! 

Scraps

I already had all the triangles I needed with this much curtain left. 

Preparing the Bunting

 I like how it’s coming together!

Bunting 1

 And I’m so happy that it fit exactly along the back pergola!

Bunting 2

 This is what it looks like from the yard…

Bunting 3

 I guess you could say I love looking at it.

Bunting 4

It really wasn’t that hard to make!  

Bunting 5

 I’d had it in the back of my mind to create for a while and now that it really came together, I quite like it! 

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