Heirloom Bunting
As an embroiderer, you may find you spend many hundreds of hours stitching treasured pieces, only to be a little stuck on what to actually do with the finished articles. There is a limit to how many creations can be framed and hung on the wall, and it’s a huge shame to have these pieces languishing in a box somewhere waiting to achieve their potential.
Our heirloom bunting was borne from my own wish to make the most of every piece I stitched and over time, I created seasonal strands of bunting that I hang at different times of the year around my home.
The heirloom bunting is designed to be fully alterable and is therefore ‘future-proofed’. Each individual flag isn’t fixed in place on the ribbon or string, meaning that the same strand of bunting can be lengthened or shortened, or even re-threaded on to a new string entirely. So if you move home, or decide to hang your strands of bunting in different places each year, all of your hard work won’t go to waste as the strands can be altered to fit your requirements. And because you put so much time, effort and love into creating your bunting, they can be passed amongst your family and friends, like a decorative equivalent of a Christening gown, handed down through generations, and displayed at everything from Great Uncle Monty’s open garden, to wedding parties and anniversaries as well as your brother’s birthday barbecue.
Best of all, because it is fully alterable, beginning your own heirloom bunting strand shouldn’t be daunting. Start with a strand of two or three flags and hang them across a mirror. Stitch a couple more flags and add them on to the string to make a strand long enough to string along the fireplace, the next couple to make it long enough for a beam. Full instructions on how to construct the bunting are included in the different bunting starter packs, designed as complementary ranges of English paper pieced (EPP), quilted and applique flags to mix in amongst your embroidered ones.
Each embroidery design on this website confirms whether it is suitably-sized for use as a flag, so all you need to do is pick your favourite embroidery design, and get stitching.
Your strand of bunting can grow year on year, whenever you have the chance to create another flag.
A true heirloom.
Shop Heirloom Bunting Products
The perfect starting point for your festive strand of heirloom bunting, creating nine appliqué flags using needle-turn and raw edge techniques. As a full kit, this contains everything you require to complete this sweet holiday decoration.
Meet Errol and Beryl, a sweet mouse couple celebrating Christmas with a leftover cracker they spirited away last year from the house’s Holiday celebrations.
Errol is hoping a set of miniature screwdrivers might be included within. They already have three yo-yos and a miniature deck of cards from previous years.
One for all the dachshund lovers out there (myself included), Dilys the sausage dog has managed to get herself all wrapped up in a string of fairy lights. Still, she’s rather wear these than her wiener coat.
Always one of our favourite embroideries at What Florence Did Next.
You may well see two turkeys in my festive offering - this Christmas bird complete with Christmas pudding and a jug of cream, and Thanksgiving, a tribute to my dear American friends.
Happily, this turkey is a guest at Christmas lunch, not Christmas lunch himself. Gobble gobble.
This is the perfect sort of snow as far as I am concerned… warm and embroidered. At What Florence Did Next, we’re not fans of the real thing (when required to go out in it, at least), but we do love to see it through the window.
Stitched in a beautiful muted palette with hints of metallic, this embroidery kit explores the beauty and variety in each individual flake.
Spending all of his time down in Antarctica, this little penguin could get very cold indeed, but to avoid the worst of the wind blustering across the tundra, he has managed to get hold of a fluffy scarf to keep the breeze out.
A Pheasant in a scarf and wellies amid a snowstorm… I can’t really say I blame him, to be honest - but this handsome chap is determined to go about his daily business even in inclement weather.
A new member of Florence’s menagerie of animals, this is a design that has been floating around in my head waiting to be stitched for years.
It’s a battle to squeeze everything in to the car whenever you go away for Christmas - I’ve never quite resorted to strapping Florence to the roof rack, but boy its come close a time to two - but that moment when your car is full to the gunwales with people, bags and presents, and you set off, Christmas music blaring from the speakers, is unbeatable.
Holiday rooooooooaaaaad!
With a gown fashioned from antique broderie anglais or lace, draped and appliquéd in place and then embellished with glittering golden trim, this is a very special herald indeed.
One of a pair of angels, the Embroidered Option can be found here.
So what did Florence do next?… In her efforts to be involved with dressing the Christmas tree, she instead got distracted playing with a strand of tinsel (still, it’s an improvement on my brother’s cat John, who used to eat it!).
If you’re as cat-obsessed as we are at What Florence Did Next, this kit’s for you.
The perfumed and spiced scent of Christmas pomanders is both instantly recognisable and utterly unforgettable, and something that transports most people back to memories of their childhood.
This little embroidery kit will ensure you have a pomander each year, whether or not you have had a chance to make the real thing.
This design started as a distraction when I was creating Turkey & All The Trimmings. I kept doodling a pilgrim’s hat and buckled shoes on to the Christmas turkey, and eventually I decided to add a second version to my offering (turkey two-ways, if you will) as a tribute to all of my dear American friends, complete with 13 gold stars for the original colonies and pumpkin pie.
Gobble gobble.
A kit to celebrate that quiet moment when all of the festive madness and noise stops and you get to bundle up on the sofa under a quilt and enjoy a good book (or some stitching!) with a mug of cocoa and a mince pie. This is Betwixtmas in thread form. Perfect.
If you enjoy a Christmas carol as much we do, this trio of choristers might just tickle your fancy. Dressed in their choral robes, they’re enjoying performing all of the old favourites, singing to the heavens. I defy you not to join in.
Always a joy to see, this sweet little hare has joined Florence’s menagerie, a distant cousin of the ones Dilys and I see darting across the fields and in to the hedgerows when we head out on our early morning walks.
It was always a certainty that a white hare would join the Christmas bunting when I started designing for this collection.
In a quintessentially Christmassy colour palette, this embroidery kit is based on my annual stomp off across the fields to the woods close to my home to drag back boughs of holly, fir and evergreens to dress the home. A trio of candles nestled amongst these branches is always set on the windowsill.
If you’re a fan of The Little Drummer Boy song, this dinky children’s drum embroidery kit might just be for you. Stitched in festive red, candy pink and winter white with silvery trims, you’ll have the prettiest percussion section in town.
With lots of stitching using metallic thread in this kit, this is the perfect design to work on to hone your skills with these more temperamental threads (and to bust a few myths that they are actually not as daunting as you think).
This heavenly herald is one of a pair of angels, and the Appliqué Option can be found here.
With a more-is-more approach to the holidays, our Christmas Baubles embroidery kit proves that you can never have too many decorations (at home or in your Christmas stitches). This is the perfect kit to get you in the mood for festivities with fir boughs hung low with sparkling baubles.
Shhh… it was almost called ‘Well Hung’ until we saw the type of posts that appeared on Instagram under that hashtag. Crikey!
The perfect starting point for your strand of heirloom bunting, creating nine flags as a base for your summer party strand - pieced stripes and log cabins, along with English paper pieced stars and hexies.
String these up as a set on their own, or create some embroidered flags from the Summer Party Collection to add in and really get the fiesta started.
Ever the optimist, Dilys the miniature dachshund would never be daunted by the prospect of retrieving a beach ball in a game of fetch. It might take some time, and she won’t appreciate your laughing at her, but she’ll bring it back to you in the end, and without the need for a puncture repair kit.
The perfect embroidery kit for any sausage dog fans in your life (or yourself if you’ve a weakness for a wiener).
This trio of ice lollies are certain to transport you straight back to your childhood. Three absolute retro favourites, each guaranteed to stain your tongue (in the best possible way), but all the absolute taste of summer, and just so jolly looking with it.
No string of summer party bunting would be complete without these crowd-pleasers.
You can keep your readymade sandwiches straight out of a packet - if picnicking’s worth doing (and it is), it’s worth doing well. Load up the hamper with delicious morsels, jugs of iced drinks and even a bottle of champagne or two.
Then all you need to do is pick your favourite picnicking spot, and drag all of the hampers and equipment there. Suddenly a spot no more than 50 metres from a car park is looking mighty appealing!
Out for a wander on a summer’s afternoon, this dear little duck wears the prettiest straw hat to keep the sun from her eyes. When it came to choosing a colour for her ribbons, we knew there was only one choice… duck egg!
A sweet kit that will have you thinking back to the antics of Beatrix Potter’s charming menagerie.
A Victoria sandwich sponge cake is always stupendous, but in the summer, when it’s piled high with mountains of soft cream and the freshest strawberries picked straight from the garden, it’s unbeatable.
This charming little celebration cake would be equally sweet on a string of heirloom bunting or assembled as a little bowl filler.
An embroidered update for anyone wanting to know what Florence actually did do next… the answer is sunbaking. Throughout the summer you will find her basking in the sunshine on the warm patio, her favoured spot amongst the herbs.
The perfect stitching project for any cat-lovers out there.
Clear the cobwebs from the windbreak, dust off the deckchairs and dig out the bucket & spade from the shed - we’re off to the seaside.
This sweet little embroidery kit will have you imagining the sound of the surf in the background and sand between your toes as you stitch away.
This little hedgehog wandered into a flowerbed and came out with a floral headdress caught on her spines - but doesn’t she look pretty and garden-party ready.
Stitch a hedgehog to join your mini (embroidered) menagerie, but be quick - she’ll scurry right off your linen if you’re not careful, back in to the hedgerow and far away.
Whether you're a sucker for a double scoop of mint choc chip, completely lacking in willpower for a triple scoop Neapolitan, or prefer the simplicity of a single scoop of vanilla with a chocolate straw, this little embroidery has you covered.
A perfect summery embroidery kit to get you stitching in the sunshine.
At What Florence Did Next we are big fans of cake. I class it in its own food group (along with sandwiches, coincidentally, which I adore equally).
I really love cake, but that’s nothing when compared with how much Florence and Dilys adore it, so when it came to marking the first anniversary of the store’s launch, I knew for certain that a very special occasion cake needed to be added to the offering.