Waldorf Window Star, Fourth of July Style {tutorial}

Just in time for fourth of July- a red, white and blue window star! You don't need to be teaching geometry in a Waldorf school (when these are typically made) to decorate your home with them. This tutorial shows the basic checkered pattern window star, which is one of my favorites and is also a good pattern to start out with if you haven't made a traditional Waldorf window star before. I decided to not do the traditional order of red, white, blue because I didn't want the blue and red to overlap making a purple design in the star. We used kite paper to make ours but tissue paper would work, too.

While they are not necessary, a rotary cutter and mat really do help with this project. For years I have been using a ruler and scissors to create my window stars but my squares never turned out even so they always lined up funny making my stars rather wonky.

Supplies needed:
-glue stick
-rotary cutter and mat or ruler and scissors
-8 squares of kite paper or tissue paper, 4 of them in white, 2 in blue and 2 in red. I cut my squares 3" x 3", this made the finished star about 8 1/2 ".

Let's begin: Step 1 - Fold your square corner to corner, and then again on the opposite corners so it have creases that create an X. Repeat this and all of the following steps with your other 7 squares. Step 2 - Now fold one corner so the point is touching in the center. Do the same to the opposite corner. Make sure the two corners line up so you don't end up with a crooked pattern. Step 3 - Fold the top toward the middle on one side. Do the same on the opposite side, again make sure they line up nicely. Although you can see in my red square below, I didn't do the best job lining them up.
Step 4 - Now you are ready to put your eight folded pieces together. Take a white piece and with your glue stick, glue it on top of a red piece along it's crease. Add a blue piece on top of the white piece, again, lining it over the crease. Continue in this manner following the color pattern of red, white, blue, white, red, white, blue, white, until all 8 are glued on. Put a small dab of glue on each star point, hang it in you window and watch it's true beauty unfold as the sun's rays shine through it. Enjoy!

Waldorf Window Star, Fourth of July Style {tutorial}

Waldorf Beeswax Resist Valentine Bunting {tutorial}

Sometime last week, the girls realized that Valentines day was rapidly approaching. They had grand plans of making very elaborate valentines but were short of time (especially for mailing them). We needed something that was full of love and pretty to look at, but simple to make. The girls wanted it to be something that we had never made before but we had to keep in mind that it had to be something that all three children could work on together. We decided to make a bunting using the beeswax resist method, similar to other projects we have done in the past. Here's how we did it!

Waldorf Beeswax Resist Valentine Bunting

Supplies needed:
a good quality beeswax crayon in a light color (we love our stockmar crayons)
a pencil
watercolor paper
yarn, string or ribbon
a needle with an eye big enough to thread your yarn through
watercolor paint
a paintbrush
a painting board
water

optional:
heart shaped cookie cutter
hole puncher



First, use your pencil and cookie cutter to trace as many hearts as will fit onto your watercolor paper. Alternatively, you could draw the hearts freehand.



Next, write the letters for whatever phrase you wish to say on the hearts using your beeswax crayon. Yellow or any light color will work. The resist doesn't work as well with dark colors.



Now soak your watercolor paper in a sink full of water for a few minutes. You want the paper to be nice and wet but not so wet that it will tear or fall apart as your child paints on it. I usually soak mine about 5 minutes at the most. Place the paper on your painting board (or kitchen counter - whatever you may be using.) Wipe excess water off paper with clean, damp sponge. Make sure there are no puddles of water on the paper, and wipe away any air bubbles.

Now paint your entire paper using whatever colors you choose. In our case, Little L did red, C did pink and K made purple by layering red and blue on her paper.

Leave your painting to dry.

Note: You can view a nice Waldorf wet-on-wet watercolor painting tutorial here.



Once the paper has fully dried, cut out each of your hearts. Place the hearts, in the order you desire, on your table. Thread your needles with yarn (cut at a length long enough to fit your hearts with extra length to hang it up.) Starting at one end of your bunting, poke a hole with your needle and pull it through one side of your heart at the top and then push the needle back through at the other side of the heart. Continue in this manner until you have all the hearts threaded onto the yarn. Take your needle off of the yarn and you are done!



Doesn't this banner remind you of conversation hearts?



One thing we learned this time around with the resist is that darker paint shows the letters much better. K had a vision in her head of lavender, pink and red hearts. They came out really pretty but it's harder to see the letters on the pink and lavender ones.

Some other heartfelt crafts from the past that you might enjoy :
Heart acorn necklaces, pine needle hearts, beeswax hearts, tissue paper and beeswax flowers.

Okay, time for me to get back to my birthday knitting - I am falling behind!!

p.s. - There's still time to enter the Waldorf Homeschool Handbook giveaway here!

Waldorf Beeswax Resist Valentine Bunting {tutorial}

Cute and Cozy Children's Pants {Super Easy Sewing Tutorial}

Back in November, I made Little L a new pair of pants with an improvised pattern. I got the idea for this project from Little L's favorite and most comfortable pants he has ever owned.  I wanted to make him another pair just like them but with some flannel shark fabric he picked out. Hey, I have to feed support his love of sharks!

I really like how fast, easy and cute the pants were (in fact, I used this same method to make his Santa Lucia pants in December.) I was able to make these from start to finish within hours (I normally take days to sew something), so believe me when I say they are fast! I thought maybe some of you might appreciate a tutorial for a project such as this so I took a few photos along the way. I really planned on sharing this quite some time ago but completely forgot about it. My friend just brought it back to my attention (thank you, Nicole!)

Cute and Cozy Children's Pants

Supplies needed:

- your child's favorite pants (that still fit or are just starting to become too short) to trace
- 1 yard of your choice of fabric (more of less, depending on the size you are making. I used less than a yard for size 3T pants)
- 3/4" wide elastic
- thread and your sewing machine

First things first - before you begin this project wash and dry your fabric to prevent shrinking later on.



Once you have that out of the way, take your fabric and fold it in half lengthwise with the selvage edges touching. Right sides together would be best but it works either way. I chose to do wrong sides together for these pants so the fabric showed up better in the photographs. Iron the fold to create a crease down the center of the fabric.



Now open your fabric back up to see the crease line (Let's ignore my shaky arrow there, shall we?)



Fold the left half of your fabric (lengthwise, again) to have the selvage edge meet the crease you made in the center.



Place your child's pants, folded in half, with the outside leg of the pant along the fold of the fabric. Make sure to leave space at the bottom of the pants to add length and/or hem.



Pin in place. Trace around your pants with a fabric pen, allowing 1/2" extra for seam allowance and 1 1/2" extra at the bottom for hemming. If you need additional length, add that amount to the 1 1/2" hem allowance. Also, at the waist (the top), leave an extra 2 1/2" for the waistband. Remove the pants you traced and cut the pants piece out on your trace line.



Repeat the above steps on the right half of your fabric (folded to the crease line). But instead of using the pants to trace your pattern piece, use the piece you just cut out, ensuring that both pieces will be the exact same size.



Open up the two pieces and pin them with right sides together. Sew from the waist to the crotch, on both sides.



Now open up the pants so that the crotch seam you just sewed is in the center and the two legs are on each side (see photos above). Pin together matching up the leg bottoms and crotch seams.
Begin sewing at one leg bottom, sew up the length of the pants to the crotch, and then down the other leg to the bottom. Clip the center crotch area and cut threads.



Almost done!  Time for the waistband. With your pants still facing wrong side out, fold down the top edge 1/4" and iron in place. Fold down another 1" and iron again. This creates the elastic casing. Sew close to the fold (see photo above), all the way around the waistband of the pants, leaving a 2" opening at the back center to insert the elastic.

Attach a large safety pin to your elastic and insert the elastic through the opening. Thread it through being careful not to twist. At this point you can try the pants on your child to see exactly where to sew the elastic or just add 1" to your child's waist measurement. Sew the two ends of the elastic together. Stitch the waistband closed at the elastic opening.

Lastly, hem your pants. Fold the bottom edge up 3/4" and iron. Fold again 3/4", iron and pin in place. Sew around the pant leg close to the fold (similar to the elastic casing you did on the waist). Repeat for second leg. Turn pants right side out and you're done!



Super comfy pants made in one day! In the end I decided the shark flannel would work better as pajama fabric instead of pants to wear outside the home. Little L didn't care as long as he got to wear them one way or another. I also cut out a little piece of the shark flannel to sew on to an extra shirt to make a complete pajama set. You can't get much cuter or simpler than this!

I think I need to make some more pants for Little L this way now that he is out of diapers and can't keep any of his bottoms up over his tiny bum!

I hope you enjoyed this. If something doesn't make sense or you have any questions please don't hesitate to ask!

Cute and Cozy Children's Pants {Super Easy Sewing Tutorial}

Snow in the kitchen

A good chunk of our day revolved around snow. Either outside playing in it or inside crafting recipes with it in our kitchen. We were so very glad for the distraction it provided for us. K seemed to have woken up on the wrong side of the bed but then after a hard couple of hours into our day she just started sobbing uncontrollably saying she really missed her friends back home (and especially her "D friends".) Such heartache is enough to make anyone have a rough day! We talked about it quite a bit and then we looked at pictures of our dear friends, talked about when we would see them again and then switched gears to snow.

The girls had been asking to make snow ice cream since we moved here and today seemed like the perfect occasion to do it. The ingredients are simple enough (we based ours off this recipe):
-16 cups of clean, freshly fallen snow
-1 tablespoon vanilla
-vanilla almond drink

K mixed the vanilla into the snow and then we added some vanilla almond drink into the mixture just a little at a time, until it was a nice ice cream consistency. We chose to omit the sugar called for in the original recipe since the almond drink was already sweetened. The children devoured it. I had a couple of spoonfuls and I have to say it tasted like a vanilla milk shake!

Later on in the day, just before dinnertime, we decided to make some sugar snow maple candy. We followed this recipe but I admit I was a bit stingy and we only used one cup of maple syrup (it's expensive!) It was a slightly messy project (due to this Mama using too small of a pot and the syrup boiling over), but lots of fun. C kept exclaiming, "I really feel like we are Laura and Mary Ingalls right now!" She quickly got out her potholder loom and got to work on it telling me it was just like the winter sewing that the Ingalls girls did in the Little House in the Big Woods. I adore her enthusiasm. 

Our candy cooked a bit too long so it ended up being more like maple syrup hard candy but that  didn't stop us from eating many servings of it! We just had to brush our teeth extra good before bed. It was really more about the process than the end result anyway. But I have a feeling that we'll be trying this recipe again with our next snow fall.

Even with all of the day's fun, K was heartbroken again by bedtime. But the comfort C gave her seemed to help immensely. I will be saying an extra prayer for her tonight to help her heart heal and I have hope that her siblings have already done the same.

Snow in the kitchen

Waldorf Wool Felt Angel {tutorial}

With the lack of rhythm going on around here from our unpacking and trying to settle, I have noticed that my girls are a bit more on edge and sensitive than usual. So, as busy as we are, I have been making a point to stop, drop everything and just sit and create with them. The boxes can wait. We will be settled soon enough, but my children need all of me. I think I need that connection and one on one time just as much as they do, even if it's just for a short while. What a difference it makes. It really gets us all through the day.
With that in mind, I thought I would share another little craft the girls and I made last week.



Supplies needed:
-wool felt in your choice of colors for the angel's body, wings and halo
-embroidery floss (or gold thread)
-a small amount of wool to stuff her with
-craft glue
-sewing needle
-scissors
-wool roving (for the hair)
-white chenille stem (for neck and arms)
-1 20mm wood bead (for head)
-2 5mm wood beads (for hands)

and if you choose to make a star staff as we have you will also need yellow modeling beeswax and a small wooden dowel.



{Template}
Cut out one of each piece in wool felt. You can really make the angel in any size you desire but our pieces measured the following sizes: halo - 1 1/2", wings - 6" wide, body a little over 7 1/2" (that is for the full cut out piece, not folded in half)



{Create neck and arms}*Warning neck piece shown is too short! Please ignore it*
Cut chenille stem the length of the angel's arms plus an extra half inch. Then cut another piece of chenille about 1 1/2" long for the neck. Find the center of each piece by folding in half.



Open the pieces back up and place the center of the smaller neck piece in the center of the arms piece, with the points of the neck piece facing upwards. Twist the neck piece tightly around the arms piece to form the neck.



{Attaching head and arms}
Fold your wool felt body piece in half on the fold line. Using your scissors, make a tiny snip in the center for your angel's neck. Then push the neck through the tiny snip from the inside and pull through.



Glue the head bead onto the neck. Either fold over the excess chenille or trim it.



{Sew up the body}
Separate your floss so you have three strands to work with and thread your needle with them. Start at one of the angel's hands and sew a blanket stitch down the length of her body. Repeat on the other side. You can also blanket stitch the bottom of her dress to embellish it more, if you like. Just make sure to only do piece at a time with that so you can still stuff her with wool at the end.



{Hands}
To make the hands, glue the beads onto the chenille sticking out of the angel's sleeves. Trim any excess chenille.



{Wings}
Sew the angels wings on by doing a simple running stitch down the center of the wing piece. After you have attached the wings, stuff a small amount of wool into the angel's upper body/chest area. This will help her to stand and hold her body up straight.



{Hair}
Cut a length of wool roving for the hair. You want the piece to be thick enough to cover her head but not so thick that it won't stick on with the glue. You can make it any length you want. I tend to cut mine long and then after it is attached to the head, I style and trim it. Apply glue around the top, back and sides of the angel's head, leaving the face open and then stick the roving hair on firmly. Add a small amount of glue to the roving on the center back of the head and attach the halo.



After we glued ours, we placed our angels on their backs and had them hold down their hair to help keep it in place while it dried. Let dry for a few hours and then come back and style your angel's hair. C trimmed hers and left it down, K did pigtails on hers and I did braided pigtails on mine.



Tah-dah! Your angel is done! Use them as a decoration on your tree, in your Nativity scene, as a puppet or just as a decoration. The girls have been playing with theirs every day while mine is in a window in our living room.
I should add -  The girls thought their angels needed a base to stand up so they sewed on a circle of wool to the bottom of theirs and then stuffed the whole angel but that ended up making it hard for them to stand so I wouldn't suggest doing that.

p.s - I apologize for the photos. I need to resize them to stop the annoying flickr slideshow and it appears that messes with the photo quality. Please bear with me as I still try to sort this out.

Waldorf Wool Felt Angel {tutorial}