Make a Party Popper Bandolier, the Essential Shotfun Accessory.

What could be cooler than owning a Double Barrel Shotfun? Being fully equipped to use it, that's what. 

Any gun becomes useless as soon as you run out of ammunition, so you need to keep some to hand. Keeping with the Shotfun theme, I decided to make a bandolier to hold party poppers - far more elegant than shoving them in my pockets

Step 1: Materials and Tools

The two main materials for the bandolier are a wide fabric tape and a length of elastic. 

I bought two metres of each from Kitewife's favourite knitting shop. The tape is of a similar texture to hessian, and the elastic is similar in feeling (apart from being stretchy) to paracord.  The two came to less than £4.00.

Apart from that, you need basic sewing tools - needle, thread, scissors and a ruler or tape measure. You may need a thimble if your fabric ribbon is tough.

Step 2: Measuring

Your bandolier needs to hang past your hip. Remember that it will shorten as you fill it.

I used an ordinary bulldog clip to hold it place until I was ready to start sewing. 

Step 3: Sewing the Tape.

I quickly tacked the two ends of the tape together with large stitches, then fastened more firmly with small stitches.

I then trimmed off the loose ends of tape, and stitched along the cut edges with a sort of blanket stitch. Because of the loose weave of the tape, I had to repeat this three more times.

The pattern on the tape had the added advantage of disguising the poor quality of my sewing...

Step 4: Adding the Elastic.

I folded the elastic in half, and sewed the centre of the elastic to the tape near the shoulder.

I sorted the spacing of the stitching by simply fitting a party popper in place and noting where the elastic came to.

It turned out that I needed to stitch the elastic in place every five centimetres (two inches). As well as stitching around the elastic several times at each point, I put a couple of stitches through the elastic as well, to stop it sliding through the stiches.

Step 5: Finishing.

When I got to the end of the bandolier, I knotted the ends of the elastic and trimmed them off.

Slide a party popper into each loop of elastic, strike a pose, and away you go!