the bunch- handcrafted.stylishly: Sewn Applique' Rag Tie Bunting Tutorial and Candy Land Themed 1st Birthday Cake Smash Reveal

Before Madisyn was born, I came across the facebook page of a local Newborn Photographer. She had a Newborn Photography special I just could not pass up. We bought one for our little Sweet Pea and one for our friends due with Little Baby Hunter 6 weeks before Madisyn.

A few days after Madisyn was born we had our first major outing- Visiting Miss Lindsay Porter at her studio she had at the time, in downtown Snohomish (which is a SUPER cute little town, if you've never been- GO!). We had so much fun taking photos of our sweet babe and scrunching her up in the funniest little poses- Lindsay was such a professional and I adored her personality.

Needless to say, our relationship with Miss Lindsay did not end there. Madisyn has had the pleasure of being photographed by Lindsay Porter Photography every couple of months in her first year and a half of life. I am so glad that we took the time and expense to have these photos done- they will be treasured FOREVER.

Over the last 20 months I have gotten to know Lindsay a little bit better at each photo session. And as the bunch's product line in Baby Galore, 1st Birthday Outfits and Accessories grew, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to offer these adorable outfits to Lindsay's Clients as well.

What better way to launch our co-branded effort than for a CANDY LAND THEMED CAKE SMASH!? I had SO much fun creating the outfit AND Lindsay asked me to handcraft a Sewn Applique' Rag Tie Bunting for her photo-shoot backdrop.

I found a few tutorials here and there- but none of them had the step by step with photos like I longed for... SOOOOO- here is one for you!!!

Cut, Iron, Sew

The first step is to figure out how big you want your bunting triangles to be. I wanted about a 3 foot banner total, so I eye balled the length on my ruler and decided they needed to be about 9 inches tall and 6 inches wide at the top of the triangle. I used my fabric ruler to measure and rotary cut 1 triangle. Then I laid that triangle on top of my ironed fabric and the ruler over the top of that and rotary cut along the edges, using my first triangle as a pattern. I cut a total of 6 triangles (You will need two for each finished triangle.

I used my Silhouette to cut out my letters with interfacing and ironed on my letters onto 3 of the triangles.

Once the letters were ironed on, I sewed around the edges of each letter with a coordinating color thread and puled the loose ends through to the back side of the fabric. Because this isn't a peice that will most likely be washed very much, or at all, I didn't tie off the loose ends of the thread, they should be fine just pulled through to the inside.

With all 3 of the letters Applique'd, I then laid out the triangles without applique' over the top of each letter triangle (right sides facing), pinned and stitched around 3 sides (leaving the top open).

Cut, Flip, Iron

After you've sewn around the 3 sides, cut the tip of the triangle off (the excess fabric outside of where you sewed) so that when you flip it inside out there isn't a lot of bulky fabric preventing you from getting a pointy tip on your triangle.

I used a chop stick to carefully poke the tip of my triangle to get all the fabric pushed inside out. Once you have it all flipped, iron it to get a crisp finished look.

Trim, Measure, Bind

After you sew your 3 triangles and flip them right side out, they won't be perfectly straight across the top (unless you are perfect, I obviously- AM NOT). Use your rotary cutter and ruler and trim the edges so you have a straight edge to enclose in your binding.
I purchased premade Extra Wide, Double Fold Bias Tape from Hobby Lobby to use as the ribbon for my bunting. I cut the bias tape to 3 feet long and then folded in half to find the middle. I marked it with a pin.

I arranged my bunting triangles on my cutting mat with the spacing I wanted to allow for room for the rag ties between each triangle. Notice my center of the bias tape pin is the in center of the middle triangle.

And then I pinned each triangle inside of the bias tape fold so that the raw edge was covered.

Sew, Rag Tie, and Done!

After pinning each triangle, I used my widest zig-zag stich on my sewing machine and started at one of the ends of the bunting and sewed all the way to the other edge, taking out the pins as I went. After it was sewn, it looked like a finished project, but I wasn't done yet. I used strips of coordinating fabric and tied knots in each strip between the triangles until there was no exposed bias tape remaining... And that's all there is to it!

What do you think? Easy to make, right?! Stay tuned to see a few photos of the cake smash session with this set as a prop and maybe even a little Photography Special and Etsy Coupon Code!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!