About Tricia

I am Tricia. Momma of nine, homeschooler, artist, foodie and maker of all kinds of things. It's a pleasure to share here our family homesteading adventures, the things we make, and what inspires our days. Read more about my family and work here. Thanks for visiting!

Author Archive | Tricia

a bunting we will go…a tutorial

By on October 11, 2011 in Sewing and Crafts, Tutorials and Patterns

Thanks to everyone who commented or sent me emails yesterday about the cupboard simplification.  I love to hear from you all and I so appreciate it!!  I also get a bunch of emails about the buntings I make for every single birthday party and especially the one I made for our Farmers Market booth.

I did take pictures while I was making the one for market (thinking it might be blog worthy reading) so for all of you who requested it, here it is.

This is going to be super simple.

You will need:
Double fold bias tape at least 3/4 inch preferably 1 inch
Different fabrics for the penants and a fabric for the back of the penant, here is where you can use the cheap muslin at Joanns.
Thread for your sewing machine
Scissors
Cardboard to make a template
Iron

Choose as many fabrics as you want to be in your bunting that coordinate with each other.

 Next, you need to make a template.  I use cardboard like from a food package to make mine.  You can make your penants as wide and long or fat and short as you like.  You can see my template, it is 6.5 inches wide by 7 inches long.  The easiest way (at least for me) to make the template was to cut a rectangle, 6.5 x 7 inches then fold in half to mark the bottom center point.  Then with a ruler, draw a line from each top edge to that center point and that will give you a perfect triangle.

Now it’s time to cut out the penants.  If you have a rotary cutter use it, if not just draw your triangles on your fabric and cut them out, no biggie.

next cut out the same amount of penants from the fabric you will use on the back.  You could actually cut out this step and not line it but it will not last very long. 

Now we are going to mozey on over to the sewing machine and putting two penants right sides together, we will sew around the outside leaving the top open.  If you do not have a sewing machine and do not care about your penant lasting for ever then by all means, cut out your penants and using fabric glue, attach them inside the bias tape and you are done. This bunting that we are making will however last.

 as you see I do not cut the thread as I sew each one, I just keep adding another set of triangles when I am done sewing one and cut them all apart when I am done with this step

 cut off the tips as you can see in the triangle on the right. If you do not cut off the tip, you will not get a good point when we inside out these

at the top ends you will have these little points sticking out, cut those off too.  Now inside out each triangle and press them with the iron.  We are almost done

sandwich the triangles inside of the bias tape and pin in place. Take them over to the sewing machine and sew all the way across.  I use a zigzag stitch in a coordinating color thread.  Be careful to remove your pins as you go (ask me how I know this) you don’t want to get a pin in your finger.

unfortunately I did not get any good pictures of the bunting, maybe I will remember to do that this weekend. 

Buntings are so cute.  Depending on the fabric you can use them for boys, girls, parties, weddings, you name it. I have even made them from paper which is really cute too.  Have fun and if you make any, send me a picture.  I love to see your projects!

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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Simplified cupboard

By on October 10, 2011 in Household, Simplicity, Tutorial

Simplifying our life is always one of my priorities.  I am always redoing this or that, changing where things go or making new rules and ways of doing things.  No, I don’t have A.D.D., I call it tweaking and I am always tweaking.

I love it when I get an idea from a friend, in real life or in the blog world, that I can use here and make a difference.  One of the areas of our home that I am always trying to work on, keep more organized, keep cleaner and uncluttered is the kitchen.  We spend alot of time in the kitchen and compared to my kitchen in our last home, my kitchen now is small and with 10 people there is always alot of mess to clean, food to make and dishes to do.  Dishes are my least favorite part!

In comes Nicole from Frontier Dreams with her always good ideas.  Back in the summer she simplified her cupboards and gave me the inspiration to work on mine, albeit 4 months later : ) 

There is nothing worse that coming into the kitchen you last saw clean to cook a meal and finding a sink full of dishes (that I did not use).  Our problems (as I’m sure is the case in many of your homes) is too many dishes.  With so many cups, plates and silverware, my family can just use and use and pile them in the sink.  It took some courage but I got out all the plates and cups out of the cupboard and left only one plate, cup, bowl and mug per person.  That is it! I packed away, on a shelf in the garage, enough cups and plates to serve guests and got rid of the extras.  I wish I would have taken a before picture (though embarrasing it would have been) but I was not in the blog sharing mind, but trust you me, it was hard to get anything in or out.

I then made some name bands for our cups, which are and have always been, at least since 1999, mason jars.  I have always loved mason jars.  In the year 2000, I got all the packaging out of my pantries and put everything I could into mason jars.  I also took some cabinet doors off so I could see all my beautiful jars full of grains and food staples.  Anyhoo…getting off the subject, mason jars are great because they are cheap and if one of my kids leaves milk or tea in their cup, I put a lid on it and put it in the fridge. Plus they are very trendy at the moment though we will keep using them far after they fall back out of favor.

the big one at the back is Poppas. It is the only one without the name band on since he said it got one his nerves and everyone knows which cup is his.

Now, as soon as we are done eating, each child cleans his own dishware.  It has made my kitchen so much nicer.  Thanks Nicole!

In case anyone wants to make some of the name bands, it is super easy and here is how:

You need:

Clear elastic string for making bracelets. I guess you could use anything but I wanted something that would not get moldy and would stretch. You can find this at any craft store in the jewelry making department.

Alphabet beads. I think I paid about $4 for a big pack at Michaels and I did not have a coupon.  I still have enough beads to make a bunch more.

Measure around the cup and add 2 inches for tying the ends.  String on the beads and tie the end (make sure it will be snug around the neck of your cup) and apply a drop of glue to the ends or they will come apart.  I used hot glue.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or follow me by email at the top right hand of the screen to have future posts sent to you. Tricia (Crunchy Catholic Momma)

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