A quick, little 4th of July Bunting

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across this adorable idea on Pinterest and decided to re-create for the upcoming Independence Day celebration!  It was tucked away in the back of my mind, but when I ran across the flags in the Dollar Section at Target, the idea was born.

Supplies:

• Small fabric flags – I found these at Target and they were 3/$1 🙂
• Burlap
• Jumbo Ric Rac
• Wonder Under
• Thread
• Sewing Machine

1. Cut the flags off the sticks to a uniform size – mine ended up being 4″ x 6″.
   
2. Apply Wonder Under to the flags.
3. Cut burlap to desired size – mine are 7″ x 7″ square.  If you need tips on how to cut burlap straight, check out our tutorial.
4. Iron the flags onto your burlap squares and stitch around the edges to secure.  Make sure you leave enough room at the top of the square to add the ric rac.
   
5. Stitch the ric rac to the top of the squares.  I left about 12 inches of “tail” on both ends so that I can hang however and wherever I want.
   

And voila, you are done and ready to hang!  Here’s wishing you and yours a blessed holiday – and prayers to all the wonderful servicemen and women who help provide the independence and freedom we live under.

 ~Blessings!

Happy 4th of July (and a tutorial)

Happy Independence Day!!!!  We are so blessed to be living in an amazing country that allows us so many freedoms – and I love having a day to remind us of that 🙂

My girls, my dad, and I spent the day before picking blueberries (which is a yearly tradition in our family since I was a little girl).  Although the berries were a little hard to find, we had a great time.  And managed to come home with 14 pounds of berries.  Hint, hint… a future blog may a recipe of fresh blueberry preserves 🙂

 

We spent the day, as many of you did, celebrating with family and friends. My daughter Claire is playing Tic Tac Toe with her grandpa, with a game hand-painted by her great-grandmother out of rocks and pebbles.

I was so inspired by the adorable new fabric collections, Flats by Angela Yosten, that I wanted to make my girls some patriotic-inspired shirts for the special day.  I started with a tutorial I found on Pinterest for a toddler’s Pillowcase Dress on the blog The Ribbon Retreat and just modified it to fit my girls.

And instead of doing the sash and bow (which my girls wouldn’t have worn), I did an elastic band with straps.  Check out the steps below.

• I used the tutorial steps all the way until the part with the ribbon treading through.  Instead, I made straps.   I cut the fabric in a 4″ strip and folded it in half and pressed with the iron.  I then opened it up and pressed the outer edges in half towards the middle seam – pretty much like you do when you make your own bias tape.  I then did a 1/8″ seam on both sides of the strap to hold it all together.

• I then measured the desired length for the straps and added 1″ for seams.  I cut both straps the same length.  I then measured the girls from collar bone to collar bone and subtracted about 1-1/2″ for the front piece of elastic and about 2-1/2″ for the back piece of elastic- depending on how much gathering you want.  (I used 1″ elastic)
• Now just attach the elastic to your strap.  I sewed in this order: strap to front elastic, front elastic to other strap, and then other strap to back elastic. 

 

• Next, attached a safety pin to the end of the elastic and fish through the cased opening.  Once the seams line up, just stitch back over the existing seam.  Repeat for all the seams.  Once you fish the elastic through the final casing, just stitch the elastic to the strap and sew the strap into place.

• And voila, there you have it!!!  Your shirt is complete!!!  Check out these adorable little girls in their new shirts – ok, I might be a little biased, but I think they are “perfect” 😉

4th of July is around the corner! TUTORIAL

How is your summer going?  Our’s seems to be getting busier and busier.  I had a little time this morning to whip up these little cuties and I wanted to show you how to make them.

We now have Baker’s Twine in the shop.  I love this stuff. There are so many things you can do with it.  These beautiful spools have been staring at me for about a week begging me to get my hands on them.  I couldn’t resist making my little one these cute flip flops and headband to wear on the 4th.


Let’s get started!


Supplies
Red Baker’s Twine
Flip Flops–I bought these at Walmart for $3.00
Headband–this one came in a pack of 6 for $2.85
E6000 glue
Various beads–I don’t have mine pictured because I decided to change my design about halfway through.

To begin with, unroll a large amount from your spool.  Then roll it back up and bind with a rubberband.  Trust me, it will eliminate a lot of frustration in the long run.  You can just pull the end out a little at a time.

Place a large dot of glue at the base of the flip flop.  You might let it set up a minute so it holds while you are wrapping.

Now wrap, wrap, wrap.  Apply E6000 on both sides of the part you are wrapping. One thing i noticed…the twine will unwind as you are wrapping.  I started twisting it a little tighter right before I wrapped it.  This seemed to help.

Here it is finished.  When you come to the end…apply a large dot of the E600 to secure the end of your twine.

 Repeat the process for the other flip flop and the headband.

Now…apply a large dot of glue and start to apply your beads.  I just sprinkled mine on and let them fall where they wanted to…the glue stays wet long enough that you can kind of play with it and get the desired effect you want.  Also, I thought one layer of beads wasn’t enough so I let the first layer dry, then added another dot of glue and applied more beads.

For the headband, I applied a large dot of glue then dipped it in the beads.  Again, you can move the glue around to get the look you want.

The glue dries rather quickly and I love the results!

 

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th!