Teach Me Tuesday: The Forth of July Craft Edition

Welcome to Teach Me Tuesday! I spend a lot of time each week reading all of the great DIY tips out there in Blogland. Because there are so many fabulous projects that I can’t wait to try, I figured that it would be fun to feature some of my very favorites here each Tuesday.

If you would like to be featured in an upcoming edition of Teach Me Tuesday, please email me at LivingWithLindsay@gmail.com and we’ll chat!

With the Forth of July holiday quickly approaching (it’s 2 1/2 weeks away, people!), it’s time to turn our attention to decorating our homes for the festivities. Generally, Independence Day involves getting together with your friends and neighbors for some Summertime fun, and I know that all of you are ready to strut your decorating stuff.

First, I’d like to share with you a little something I put together for the folks over at Fave Crafts. I created framed chalkboard labels that you can add to your Forth of July BBQ spread to keep people from asking you, “What kind of casserole is this?” and “Do these cookies have peanut butter in them?” Your guests will love you for it and your table will look adorable at the same time. Head on over to Fave Crafts and check out the tutorial.

Additionally (and more importantly and seriously way cuter than my chalkboards), I want to draw your attention to the ridiculously adorable patriotic swag by Anjeannette, one of the fun sisters over at Roots and Wings Co. This swag is extremely easy to put together, thanks to the clear and concise instructions provided. In fact, I’m pretty certain that you could do all of this with a glue gun. I know you all love a no-sew project as much as I do, right?

Anjeanntte explains:

Oh I am so excited about this one. I love to see houses decorated for the 4th of July. I adore all the swags I see. I wanted to make some, but when you factor in all the fabric it takes to make them, I was not too keen on the idea. I thought up this as a way to make a cute swag but with much less fabric! Yay!!

1. Gather your supplies

-You need two different fabrics. One to represent the blue with white stars on the flag, the other to be the red and white stripes of the flag. I found some adorable red and white checked fabric for the stripes.

-You need some coordinating Rick Rack. I got the widest I could find.

-You will need some coordinating wide width double fold seam binding

-And lastly, you need two bowls. I used my largest and smallest mixing bowls from a set. This way they were both the same shape, just in different sizes.

2. Trace your largest bowl on the blue fabric.

3. Trace your smallest bowl onto your red and white fabric.

4. Using Pinking Shears, cut around your circles.

5. With the right sides out, iron your red and white circles in half.

6. With the right sides out, iron your blue circles in half.

7. Leaving the blue circles folded in half, sew coordinating Rick-Rack around the curved edge, about 1/2 inch from the pinked edge. This is going to sew the circle together to form half a circle. I liked the double layer because it gave it a little more shape and because I was hanging this in a window. I wanted it to be somewhat double sided, although one side does not have Rick-Rack.

8. You now have half a circle with Rick-Rack on one side.

9. You are going to sew the smaller circle onto the larger one. In order to make it nicely double sided, you need to open up the red and white fabric. Fold the blue fabric in half with the Rick-Rack inside the fold. Using the ironed fold of the red and white fabric as a guide, line up the middle of the blue fabric with the center point on the red and white fabric. See below.

10. Unfold your blue fabric, carefully keeping the placement.

11. Fold the red and white fabric down over the blue. Pin into place.

12. Sew around curved edge of the red and white fabric. This will stitch the red and white fabric to the blue fabric.

13. Sew the desired number of half circles together as above. Then you will be ready to sew it into a swag. Using wide double fold seam binding in a coordinating color, sew the half circles inside the binding.

Now you have an adorable Patriotic Fabric Swag!! Make them for your windows. Make them for your porch rail. Make them for the front of your house.

I would love to see anything you make using this tutorial. I am so excited about how it looks in my house. I’m trying not to go overboard and cover the whole house with them;) I hope you love it too.

~~Anjeanette

Oh, Anjeannette. I love it, too! How darling!

I encourage everyone to visit Roots and Wings Co. and
check out the great things they are doing. They have some seriously cute tutorials and lots of great kid crafts, too. Thanks for sharing your delightful blog with us, Anjeannette!

Tagged as: crafting, crafts, Decorating Inspiration, glue gun, Home Dec, Home Decor, Inspiration, paint, paint brush, painting, sewing, Teach me Tuesday, Toddler