It’s been a tradition for the past few years in our neighbourhood to put up red bows rather than energy-consuming light displays in a green Christmas concept initiated by real estate agent Doug Disher.

Although our red felt bows have weathered well on the verandah posts, it was timely to upcycle them into Sew 344 of the 365-day Sew it Again project reusing what we have rather than buying new.

To make the bunting, cut the strips of red felt into triangles and decorate each with pieces of unused white linen napery (gathered from op shops) – including doillies, napkins, glass-covers along with some white net tulle – all secured by bias-binding created from a quality white sheet (cast off by a friend). 

To make a big batch of bias binding, I cut multiple strips (about 5cm wide) after folding the sheet in half across the diagonal and cutting it two layers at a time. You can iron the bias binding by hand, or use a bias-binding-machine with a built-in ironing roller (I was given one a few Christmases ago, so it was great to use it again). The machine worked a treat and I’ve now go many extra metres of white bias binding for future projects.

After sewing the red triangles into the white bias binding (leaving ties at each end), I then decorated each triangle with a random range of the white pieces machine-stitched in place. The resulting Christmas bunting (see below) is unique, looks pretty (see photo bottom) and was entirely made from upcycled materials.