As you may, or may not know (you probably will if you follow me on Twitter) I was bridesmaid at my good friends wedding on Sunday, and beforehand she taught me a quick craft (and I made two for her wedding) and that is making string balloons.

Now this is one of the more messier and stressful crafts I have ever tried, and while I didn't dislike it, I don't know if its something I will do often, although I am considering making a few for my bedroom...so we'll see!

To start, blow up a balloon to the size you desire.

Get a lot of a string (and I mean a lot - you can always use less than you've cut, but would be difficult to add more - but not impossible!) and find a pot that you can use to fill with glue.

Pour a decent amount of PVA glue into the pot, add the string, and make sure all the string is well covered in glue (you're going to need to get your hands messy from here on in!) but be careful not to create knots in the string.

Grab the end of the string (ideally leave it hanging over the edge of the pot when you cover the string in glue) and take hold of your balloon. Hold the balloon by the knot, and hold onto the end of the string, and then haphazardly wind the string around the balloon, until you've got the desired effect.

Peg up by the knot to dry for 24 hours.

When dry the string will have hardened, burst the balloon and you will be left with a wonderful decoration. You can make small ones for balls to put in a bowl, add string to make hanging decorations, you can spray paint them...anything you can think of.

This is how they were used in the wedding...

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Hello & Welcome!

If you've haven't read Vintage Bunting: Part One then I thoroughly suggest you do, so you know exactly what I am going on about!

Also I urge to you read this: A handmade Wedding by Alison Bomber

In August was the wonderful wedding of two very dear friends, Laura & Adam.

As you will know from the previous Vintage Bunting post, Me, Carol & Laura, spent a great deal of time making the individual flags for the bunting. We cut the flags, sewed them up to make double sided bunting, and then spent hours organising them and fixing them on to the binding, but all our hard work paid off, and on the day they looked wonderful, something I was so proud to be a part of.

The individual flags...

The sewn, double sided flags.

And here are a few pictures of the wonderful wedding, starring some Blanket Stitch bunting!

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Working with felt is one of the easiest ways to create gorgeous pieces to scatter around your home, and something that is super easy to get children or beginners to try out!

Takes these hearts we've been making, they are easy to make and look gorgeous hung around the home.

All you need:
Felt
Thread
Buttons (to decorate)
Stuffing

How to make a felt heart:
1. Cut out 2 identical shaped hearts out of the felt you are using (you can use the same colour or two different colours - it is entirely up to you!)

2. Line them up together, and using blanket stitch, stitch around the outside of the heart, binding both sides together.

3. Leave a small gap towards the end of stitching, and stuff heart with a small amount of stuffing to pad it out.

4. Finish stitching and close up the hole.

5. Decorate the front of the heart however you wish.

6. Attach some thread to the top of the heart.

Let me know if you try this, it really is a great, fun way to make cute little bits to decorate your home!
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When I saw an idea for a product in a magazine (I think it was 'Sew' but I can't be certain...) I decided to give it a go and see how I did with my own variation.

As usual I plowed in head first, not really thinking too much about how I would do it, and sort of had to develop it further as I went along, and despite taking the best part of the afternoon I couldn't really fault the way it turned out!

I started by cutting out some squares in felt to the desired size. I decided my wallhanging would contain three squares, all centred around a pink theme, yet all different in colour, yet corresponding with each other.

For each square I cut out two squares, the one that I would sew on to and one to use as backing to hide all the horrible stitching that you would be able to see.

I decided 'Home Sweet Home' was a good slogan for all a wall hanging and quickly decided that I would have the image of a house, a heart and flower, to represent nice things about the home.

So I got to work...

I started by sewing a border on each one, so I knew what area I could work within, and I then got to work cutting out the house, heart and flower to fit.

I stitched each one to their square, using blanket stitch, and also using threads which correspond to the colour theme of the piece.

I then set to work sewing "Home Sweet Home" in freehand.


Next I attached the ribbons to the help it 'hang' and threaded in some buttons to make it look pretty.


Last of all, I attached the backs, to hide all the ugly stitching, and sewed them to the front, using blanket stitch.


Although the whole thing from start to finish was very easy, it was time consuming, but I overall I am very pleased with the end result!
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