September is my birthday month! Normally this is an occasion I shy away from, I don’t plan anything, I don’t expect anything, yet I maintain that I have the right to become royally peeved if those close to me don’t do anything special for it. There’s a long line of issues there, I know that, and it is something I’ve been working on.
Thanks in large part to my work on body image over the past few months, this year I approach my birthday with a lightness of heart and a free spirit who genuinely believes growing old is a privilege and the fact I have made it through another year on this beautiful, tormented planet is definitely worth celebrating. For this reason alone I decided September’s make and bake should be birthday themed. I hunted around for cake and food ideas, played around with some accessories to wear before finally settling on decorations.
These streamers looked relatively simple, which they are as you will see in the tiny amount of steps there are in the how to, however I feel like I’d be unfair to everyone reading this if I didn’t provide you with a true and accurate representation of this craft. It hurts. It is tedious. It takes longer than you think. And if you have a temperamental sewing machine like mine then it can be tricky in more ways than one. I’m telling you this not to put you off (because I do think it’s worth it) but to prepare you.
My knuckles, thumb and back took the biggest brunt, specifically around the regular cutting stage, multiple metres after multiple metres of the same teeny, tiny trimming motion gave me a blister, seized my knuckles up and gave me one almighty back ache. The results are brilliant though, and what I love about this craft is I now have reusable decorations I can put up year after year.
Let’s begin
You will need:
- Streamers
- Scissors
- Sewing Machine and thread
- Patience
- Knuckles of steel
Method
Cut your streamers to you desired length and place four strips on top of each other.
Sew these four strips together down the middle using a sewing machine. I have read you can do this part by hand if you wish, now listen to me very carefully…Don’t sew them together by hand. It will take you an utter age and will definitely tip this craft into not being worth it.
Fold the strips in half using your sewing line as a guide, then taking some scissors (I used pinking shears for fun jagged edges) begin the task of making regular cuts along your strip. Do not cut the line you’ve just sewn, it will break your strip and everything will be worthless. Cut up to the line, close if you’d like, but don’t cut it.
Open your strip up, ruffle it a bit to encourage the texture to come out and then repeat the above with your other colours.
And you’re done. Hang up and enjoy for many years.
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