April 11, 2016

The Pennant Project

I am working with my friend Andrea to decorate a tent and two tables at a benefit next month at the Evergreen house museum. The theme for the party is Elsie De Wolfe’s Circus Ball and so we’re decorating our tables and tent to reflect that.

Our colour scheme is the always classic blue & white, and with that in mind, we started thinking about what we’d do, with me back in England and Andrea in China. She started a Pinterest board to come up with ideas, and settled on decorating the tent with dozens of pennants as well as blue and white china, tablecloths and napkins.image We decided to use pink as the accent colour.

Luckily, I’ve got quite the stash of fabrics, so pulled out all of the blue and white ones. Just in this picture are fabrics by Victoria Hagen, Ralph Lauren, Lilly Pulitzer, and Brunschwig & Fils. IMG_0146

Honestly, the smartest thing I did was buy a pinking blade for my rotary cutter. It made all the difference in the world and I didn’t spend hours cutting. I also made a template for the pennants.

Originally, I thought I had to make 120 of the pennants, but later found that 60 would suffice. But since I’d already cut out about 100, I decided that we’d find a way to use the others. IMG_0147

Because we’re hanging the pennants on a tent, I thought they needed to be double sided, and thought that a nice blue and white striped ticking fabric would be perfect for the reverse. I was getting ready to go to the fabric store when a yard sale sign caught my eye. So I stopped off and there was a bag with 10+ yards of blue and white striped ticking in a gorgeous chintz finish. The best thing about it was the price: $3.00! SCORE!

I zoomed home and started cutting out the pennants to see how they’d look with the stripes on one side and the prints on the other. IMG_0149

Then I had to calculate how many pennants per side of the tent, which I mistakenly thought was 15x15 feet, but in reality is 10x20 feet. So I measured off 15 feet on my clothesline, so I could eyeball what they’d look like and figure out the spacing. (This was before I added the ticking backs.)IMG_0152

The pennants are about 10 inches wide and 14 inches long. They’ll be big enough to make an impact, but not so big that they won’t flutter in the breeze. IMG_0155

We still have more details to work out, but I wanted to get a start on these and not be pressured to finish them at the last minute. Check back in a month to see how the final tent and tables look!

13 comments:

  1. I fortunately dropped in your great blog. I love classic blue, too. The dish design is fascinating. I wonder the tree in center is willow. Thank you for sharing us.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! The pattern on the dishes is Booth's Old Willow. The original pattern with gold accents.

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  2. Lovely, it will be stunning with the dishes. Can't wait to see the end result.

    So fun to see the Blue Willow, my mother's pattern.

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    1. I love Blue Willow. I have a couple of sets I've gotten for dirt cheap at auctions.

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  3. Looks great MeV and you got sooo lucky!!!

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  4. Hello Meg, I am sure that your neighbors were wondering about your clothesline--or have they stopped by now? The result has to be great with so many good ideas and materials going into the project.
    --Jim

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  5. Susan Stiles DowellApril 12, 2016 at 12:14 PM

    Will you bring in any brilliant pink fabric flashes?

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    1. We are bringing in some pink, in flowers and tablecloths, etc.

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  6. You are so smart Meg, and to score on that fabric for the reverse! Can't wait to see more!

    xoxo
    Karena
    The Arts by Karena

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    1. Total score! Plus, I got some fabric from a friend who works for an upholsterer.

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  7. Just beautiful! Huge blue/white fan here.

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    1. It's such a classic. I can't wait to see how it all works out.

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