DIY Fabric Garland Bunting, from vision to reality!

So, I had this vision to hang DIY garland bunting around the inside of the dome in the main room at our wedding venue. It looked simple enough to do, just strips of fabric tied onto rope, easy right?

A quick online search brought up this lace & gold example which I sent to my friend and Mate of Honour Nick. Yep we can do this he replied.

Lace & Gold Fabric Garland Bunting.

I already had a stash of fabrics which I had been given when a friend was having a clear out – curtains, remnants and left overs from dressmaking. I picked up more at the Vintage Mary stall at our local Friday market. Another friend gave us some old climbing rope to use to tie the fabric strips on to, helping to keep it all as sustainable as possible!

Then we made a start. working out how much we needed. Rather than making one long, unwieldy 24m length we decided to divide it into twelve 2m sections, and then each section could be slightly different.

We cut and ripped the fabrics into strips between 2″ – 4″ wide and 32 – 45″ long. This took ages, and some of the fabrics, like the satin acetate, frayed and sent loose threads flying everywhere. It was messy and physically hard work! As we went along, we bundled each colour group together so we could see what we had.

Next came knotting them onto the rope – fold the strip of fabric in half,  pass the ends through the loop and pull tight. To see how it all hung together, we strung a section of rope between two chairs and started tying on the terracotta damask and gold damask fabrics first. We had loads of these and it made good base colours. Next we overlaid the brighter colours, layering it up until it looked suitably colourful and vibrant.

In the end we split the project over the course of a week doing a few hours each day, and we only settled on the colour combinations at the last minute. You could do a random mix of colours, or make each section the same. We went for a base of gold and terracotta on all of them, then some had accents of blue, some green, some bright pink and some floral. This reflected our bright, jewel colour theme for the day.

The end result was perfect. The venue had hung their own fairy lights and paper lanterns in the dome, then we added the sections of bunting, they hung down so you could see them where ever you stood in the room, and they brought in a tactile, fabric element which reflected my background in and love of textiles.

And all done ethically and sustainably. Nothing was bought brand new, we managed to source everything second hand.

Let me know what you think in the comments below!