Seaside Bunting : part 1

Hello.......... Today I thought I would share with my final make for the 'Craft Club' exhibition which starts next Saturday eek. 

The theme  for this one was 'The seaside' so straight away I thought bunting, nothing more seaside than that !

So I ordered a pack of different coloured fat quarters from which I selected the red and blues for this make.  I then spotted this wonderful Maritime fabric 'here' and knew it would be just perfect. The fabric is actually white (my that January Grey messes with colour)

So using a template I cut out 18 pennants which would make 9 flags for my bunting.  As I wanted to use as little energy as possible I cut them out using pinking shears but I kinda like the whole shabby vintage seaside look that gives them.

I then set about cutting out the boats, beach huts and lighthouse's from the fabric.

Then it was time for the fun bit, over the next few weeks I gradually hand stitched my pennants.

Each one is decorated slightly differently, the first had waves and seagulls

I hand stitched them using embroidery floss, carefully stitching the seaside images in place and then decorating the flags with a bit of free style stitching, (I blame my 'Doodle stitching' book) this one has two tone sand.

Some of my bunting even has bunting of it's own !

In total there are three of each colour, themed red with beach huts, turquoise with boats and navy for the lighthouse with it's night sky.

Some I couldn't resisted adding a little sparkle to with sequins, this one has mirror portholes.

It was so much fun letting my creativity loose,

adding a little touches to each flag

I think this one is my favourite with it's twinkling stars

So there you have it nine hand stitched flags all ready to be strung together, that was going to be the tricky bit. Being a newbie stitcher I was starting to get a bit nervous about the next bit with words like sewing machine and bias binding being thrown into the mix eek !

So lets leave it here for today, safely in the familiar land of hand stitching with sequins and pretty coloured thread.  We'll leave the scary bit till next time.

Linking up with Chrissies Stitching Sunday and & Stitches finish along so why not pop over and see what everyone else is making.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx