Bright Beautiful Bunting – Free Crochet Pattern

This Christmas I decided to make my Swiss nephews some bunting to decorate their rooms. They are pretty young, and already get loooots of toys and clothes for presents, so I thought bunting would be the perfect gift. It’s not clothing that they’ll grow out of immediately, and it won’t be lost in a pile of toys. It can be hung over their beds, on the door, and anywhere else that needs a bit of colour!

Bunting is very easy to make, but it’s time consuming. So it’s a perfect TV or car-crochet project. It’s made by stringing together multiple crochet triangles, and I added felt letters to give it a really professional touch.

Materials:

• For the triangles: 100g yarn in as many colours as you like (I used Scheepjes Colour Crafter in Texel, Leuven and Barneveld)
• For the border and string: 50g yarn in whichever colour you like (I used Scheepjes Colour Crafter in Den Helder)
• For the letters/images: one sheet of felt in whichever colours you like
• Cotton thread in colours to match the felt letters
• Glue stick
• Printer paper and printer
• Size 3mm hook (either C or D in US sizes)
• Sewing needle
• Yarn needle

Instructions:

1. Printing the letters and symbols

   • The first thing I did was open Word on my computer, find a font that I liked, and type out the name. I used Berlin Sans FB Demi as my font at size 200.
   • Then print out the name and images.
   • NOTE: For bunting, odd numbers work best, so for those names that are even, you could add an image.

2. Cutting out the felt letters

   • Cut a square around each letter.
   • Then using your glue stick, glue it to a piece of felt, then cut the felt around the square. You now have a square piece of felt with your letter glued on top.
   • Now you need to cut the letter out in detail, cutting through both the paper and the felt. This will help you get really clean lines. When cutting, don’t turn the scissors (this will tear the felt), instead turn the felt.
   • Once you have finished cutting the letter out, peel off the paper. Repeat this for each letter.
   • NOTE: glue each letter down to the felt ONLY when you are ready to cut it. You don’t want the glue to dry as it will be much harder to peel the letter off the felt afterwards.

3. Crocheting the bunting

   • Now you have all your felt letters, and this will dictate the size of your bunting flags. To create the right size bunting for my letters, I did 30 rows of the following pattern:
   • Row 1: Ch 2, make 2 SC in the second Ch from hook (2)
   • Row 2: Make 2 SC in each ST, Ch 1, turn (4)
   • Row 3: Make 2 SC in first ST, then 1 SC in remaining STs. Ch 1, turn (5)
   • Row 4: Make 2 SC in first ST, then 1 SC in remaining STs. Ch 1, turn (6)
   • Row 5-30 (or more): repeat row 4
   • Finish off but don’t bother weaving in the ends. You can crochet around the ends when you crochet the border.

4. Crocheting the border

   • Now you will crochet a border around each bunting flag in the same contrasting colour. Make sure you crochet around the ends of the yarn to hide them so you don’t have to weave them in later.
   • Join your yarn with a standing SC in the top-right corner. SC across. SC, Ch 1, SC in the corner. SC down the left edge of the bunting. SC, Ch 1, SC in the corner. Then SC up the right edge of the bunting. SC, Ch 1 and join to the SC in the corner with a slip stitch. Finish off and weave in ends.

5. Sewing the felt letters

   • Now you need to position each of the letters on the felt and sew them on. To sew the letters, I used whip stitch.
   • Pull your needle through the crochet piece from the back of the work to the front, close to the edge of the felt (don’t go through the felt yet).
   • Pull up the thread, then puncture the felt and pull the needle through the felt and the crochet piece. Don’t pull too tight or your thread might go through the felt.
   • Repeat along all edges of the felt.
   • Finish off and weave in the ends of your thread.
   • NOTE: for a more detailed explanation of how to use whip stitch on felt, see this video.
   • Repeat for all letters
   • 

6. Joining together

   • This is the easiest part! Start by using your contrasting colour (the same you used for the border) and Ch 5. Slip stitch to the first Ch (this creates a hanging loop) and then Ch 45 more.
   • *Insert your hook into the Ch 1 space in the top-right corner of your last bunting flag and make a SC. SC all the way across the top of the bunting until you get to the Ch 1 space on the top-left. Make a SC then Ch 2*. Repeat from *-* until you get to the last bunting flag. Instead of Ch 2, Ch 50 and then slip stitch to join the last chain to the 45th chain to make the hanging loop.
   • Turn your work, then slip stitch across the entire string of chains and SCs until you get to the hanging loop on the other side. Finish off and weave in your ends.

That’s it! I hope you have enjoyed making your bright beautiful bunting! It’s a very simple pattern, but offers so many possibilities for customisation and fun colour combinations.

If you use Instagram or Facebook, please do tag me in pictures of your creations, and use the hashtag #brightbeautifulbunting

Until then…

Katie

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