The Big Beautiful Bunting Co.

Bunting rental boutique opening this Saturday!

bigbeautifulbunting — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:41:33 +0000

The Big Beautiful Bunting Co. is opening it’s first high street rental shop this Saturday. If you are local to Truro, please do pop in and check out our range and see what we can offer for smaller parties and events. They’ll be an epic display of our finest festival flags in the street so you should be able to spot us just opposite TK Max. See you there!

Crafternoons at White Stuff!

bigbeautifulbunting — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 18:34:41 +0000

We ran a bunting making workshop at the Truro branch of White Stuff today.

We had a lovely time and enjoyed meeting fellow bunting lovers of all ages including a furry, four legged one. The new paper bunting designs got a lot of praise and we even managed to sell a few ready made ones to busy shoppers. If you haven’t already, do check out the White Stuff website and see what’s going on in your local branch. Such a great idea and we really enjoyed taking part.

Free Magic hearts for Valentines day!

bigbeautifulbunting — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 10:59:36 +0000

We are giving away this gorgeous little project today.

To make it simply download the Magic Hearts to your computer. All you need is some card (a cereal box will do) some string, a pair of scissors and some glue. If you enjoy making it, we have a book of 20 Magic heart designs plus 3 bonus Thaumatrope hearts available to download from our Big Beautiful Boutique. Watch our facebook page for news. Happy Valentines day!

DIY Valentines Paper Bunting Project

bigbeautifulbunting — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:05:32 +0000

If you are looking for a last minute gift or a Valentines themed project for the children, look no further, this project is for you! Available as an instant download, all you need is a pair of scissors, some glue or tape, ribbon or string. This little project can easily be tucked neatly into an envelope and given as a gift too so a perfect alternative to an ordinary card.

If you buy this today, you’ll receive an extra Valentines paper garland design for FREE!

Click here to download yours now.

DIY Valentines Paper chain project

bigbeautifulbunting — Thu, 17 Jan 2013 14:03:20 +0000

This is another really sweet design from the BBB studio and ideal for children on a rainy day.

These paper chains look best when the design is printed on both sides of the A4 sheet. 2 A4 sheets make 1 metre of chain and once downloaded to your computer, there’s no limit to how many you can make. You can download yours now from our Beautiful Bunting Boutique.

Downloadable ‘Happy Birthday’ paper bunting!

bigbeautifulbunting — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 17:35:10 +0000

We are adding some lovely new DIY projects to our Boutique this week and we thought we’d show you how to use them with a little video.

These look fab when tied to skewers and placed on top of a birthday cake. You can also send them in an envelope instead of a card. The best thing about this bunting is that once downloaded, theres no limit to how many times you can make it.

If you fancy making it, go to our boutique to download yours now. Happy crafting!

Bird & Heart Pocket Garland tutorial.

bigbeautifulbunting — Sun, 09 Dec 2012 23:08:33 +0000

We love a bit of patchwork here at the BBB studio so we have conjured up this colourful tutorial for you to brighten up Monday morning. We know it’s nearly Christmas but our stash bag is still bursting at the seams with luscious primary prints so we couldn’t help but make a grab for them when designing this project. If you are a believer that things should be useful then this is an ideal project as the pockets are perfect for storing favorite things. This tutorial could easily be made using festive red and white fabrics but for an all year round decoration you can’t beat bright pastels!

How to make it: You’ll need the following materials and equipment:

Scrap fabric and Assorted ribbons

Sewing machine, iron, thread, pen and paper, scissors, templates, pins.

Templates can be downloaded here.

Ready to start?

Step 1. Gather up all your lovely scrap fabrics and ribbons and pick at least 6 that compliment each other. We’ve opted for small prints in primary colours.

Step 2. Print your templates and cut them out. You should have three hearts, two birds and two bird breast templates.

Step 3.

You’ll need:

2 x large birds (Template B)

2 x small birds (Template D)

1 x large heart (Template A)

3 x medium heart (Template C)

4 x small hearts (Template E)

2 x large bird breasts (Template F)

2 x small bird breasts (Template G)

Fold your fabrics right sides together and press with an iron. Placing each template onto it’s individual piece of fabric, draw around it using tailors chalk or washable pen. Remember to mark a 3 cm gap somewhere along the line to leave unsewn. You will need this to be able to turn the piece inside out after sewing.

Step 4. Thread your sewing machine and sew each piece being careful to keep to the drawn line. Remember to leave the 3cm gap you marked unsewn for turning the piece inside out.

Step 5. When all the shapes are sewn, they are ready to be cut out. Cut out each shape leaving a ½ cm edge around the outside of the sewn line. Turn the shapes inside out using a crochet hook or similar. Press them with a hot iron being careful to tuck in the gap you left for turning.

Step 6. You now need to sew round the edge of each shape to give them a lovely professional finish. Arrange your shapes in a row matching up the bird breast pieces with the right size bird etc. (See illustration in Step 3.). Pin the pockets in place and remember to only sew the bottom half of the shape to create each pocket.

Step 7. Once all the pockets are sewn, lay out your garland pieces in the order shown in Step 3. Working left to right, make a neat pile with the pieces making sure your birds are facing the correct way and pockets are facing up. The far left piece should be at the top of the pile.

Step 8. Taking a 150cm long ribbon, sew it in half aprox. 10cm to create a tie. Pace your first piece (small heart) into the folded ribbon and sew. Leaving a 2cm gap, place your next piece (small bird) into the folded ribbon and sew. Be careful to catch the top of the birds head and then the top of the wing. Continue along until all your pieces are sewn in. Finish with a 10cm tie at the end.

Step 9. Cut 2 x 20cm pieces of ribbon, fold in half and hand sew onto the big birds beaks.

Congratulations, you are done! Tie to the bed posts and fill with tiny teddy bears and miniature story books. Tooth fairies love them too!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, please bookmark us and check back often as we’ll be adding more gorgeous projects.

Big Beautiful Bunting Boutique!

bigbeautifulbunting — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:40:08 +0000

Thanks to wild weather and intermittent web connections we are a few days late opening but thanks to Lulu the dog and her amazing browser testing powers, our brand new shiny boutique is now live and open for business!

So why have we opened a BBB shop? The answer is simple, we love inventing and making beautiful things and not all our ideas are suitable for hiring out. The theme throughout our shop is very much about celebration and decor, for parties or just making your home feel dressed up for special occasions. We have included some tutorials which can be downloaded instantly. We’ll be adding to these weekly so please bookmark us and check back often. They’ll be lots more crafty decor ideas here on the blog too so watch out for those.

Massive thanks to Glass Magpie who always manages to turn our BBB web visions into reality. Also Lilac Tree and Muddy Creek signs in Cornwall who make beautiful things to compliment our range. We are looking forward to offering lots more from them in the new year.

Enjoy the shop….postage is on us until December the 22nd so fill your boots!

Win! Kirstie Allsopp’s new book, ‘Kirstie’s Vintage Home’!

bigbeautifulbunting — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:56:29 +0000

We are giving away a copy of Kirstie Allsopp’s new book, ‘Kirstie’s Vintage Home’ on our facebook page today! The book features the bunting we made for the Blues and Royals wedding due to be aired in the next few weeks. Along with the book we are giving away a 3m length of the antique style lace we used to create the bunting for the program. We also made matching table runners and this very special set will be available to hire next summer so book early if you love it!

This Blues and Royals set looks particularly beautiful because it is made up of two tiers, a smaller line of flags and a larger line hung below. To win the book, simply visit our facebook page and let us know what your most cherished vintage thing is. Good luck!

Handmade wedding break at Bedruthan.

bigbeautifulbunting — Thu, 18 Oct 2012 09:00:58 +0000

We are pleased to announce two dates for BBB workshops at Bedruthan in St. Ives, Cornwall.

February 1st – 3rd 2013 and May 17th – 19th 2013

The two day breaks are made up of two one day workshops taught by myself and expert Jewellery upcycler Sarah Drew.

Learn how to choose bunting fabrics so that they ‘read’ well when displayed, create different effects using shape and spacing and make beautiful quality bunting that will last a lifetime. Fast stitchers can also learn how to make matching wedding cake and wedding car bunting using left over scraps.

You will be given a bunting kit and extra fabrics will be available to buy on the day. You are welcome to bring your own fabrics, lace and trims to use.

Sarah will be showing you how to make beautiful jewellery using vintage lace, old brooches, silk flowers and many more gorgeous things. You are invited to bring any special treasures from home to include in your makes if you so wish.