Reversable Scrap Party Bunting (or banner) - Tutorial

I made this in the course of about 45 minutes from start to finish, including feeding kids and taking photos for the tutorial. I love these banners. They're bright, colorful, easy to make which is why I have no idea why they are so expensive on Etsy. I *heart* supporting handmade. I do not heart overpricing.

The hard part with the buntings (which I had no idea that was what they were called. I thought they were "banners") comes when you have different gendered kids. Trying to find a happy gender neutral colored party pennant can drive you batty. So, I made a reversable one. One side is girly, the other, not. Which means this will have to be hung where only the side you want shown shows but that's okay. Once you make one, you'll see how easy making another is and your house will have streamers all over the place for every holiday, birthday, event and day of the week. If you can sew a relatively straight line and cut a mostly straight line, you can make a really nice bunting.

I grabbed my two gallon ziplock bag of scraps and made a triangle template. The larger the triangles the less you need for the same size space. Mine are 6.5"w x 8.75" tall which I estimated would give about a 6"x8" finished triangle.

Cut out equal number of triangles for each side of the bunting. You can make this as short or long as you like. I found that doing a number divisible by 2 worked well so I can hang it evenly. I was able to use all scraps save for three triangles.

Pin right sides together and sew with a 1/4" seam allowance along the two long sides of the triangle.

Clip off the tip of the triangle making sure you don't clip off the stitches.

Turn right side out and use a blunt tipped point to poke out the triangle tips. Iron flat. You can also sew again around the edges of the triangle if you want to really secure them together but I chose not to do this.

I used double fold quilt bias tape to string them together. I found it on clearance a while back. It's not a color I'd ever bind a quilt in I don't think. Clearance makes me buy stuff I don't really need but in this case it worked out.

Fold in the corners to form a triangle, then fold that into itself and pin in place.

Pin each triangle inside the fold of the bias tape and pin down.

Add the next triangle. I used my cutting mat as a guide and placed each about 2" apart. 

 

Sew it down the fold on the ends then straight across the bias tape with about a 1/4" seam allowance. Make sure you have those triangles pushed all the way against the fold in the tape so you don't miss any edges. Clip your stray threads and Wah-lah (I have no idea how to spell French) you're done!

Boy side

Girl side

It's machine washable and folds down small enough to store with ease. I'd love to see the buntings you make with my directions! Party on, crafty friends, party on.

Solar to Sustain Us?

One of my favorite They Might Be Giants kids songs is "The Sun" (quoted in italics below). It's actually a song I can listen to without wanting to stab someone for it's idiotic repetitiveness  quite catchy tune and is about science. So, its basically awesome.

The sun is a mass of incandescent gas,

A gigantic nuclear furnace,


Where hydrogen is built into helium,


At a temperature of millions of degrees.

This homesteading thing isn't about us building a spec home on a large sodded lot. It's about changing our lifestyle and reducing our needs outside what we can harvest and grow outselves. Harvesting the sun for energy is just one of those ideas. Looking at our recent electric bill...well, lets just say it looks to be a daunting task. Can seven people live without the lines of The Electric Company hanging over us?

We need its light,



We need its heat,


The sunlight that we see,


The sunlight comes from our own suns,


Atomic energy
 
I'd like to think we could. But I'm not sure. We're reading about it, researching, pricing out panels. That's what this whole huge life is about: learning. Last month we used on average 81 kwhpd. Oh. My. God. It fluxuated over $125 from December. Ouch. Granted, we're sitting in a house built in 1922 that literally had holes in it where you could see daylight. We have no insulation besides the minimum in the attic. There are places the only barrier between us and the outside is an almost a century old panel of wood. The AC/electric heat unit put it has one single duct to the downstairs which makes us need multiple space heaters running constantly to keep the chill down. I wore gloves to type during the freeze snap we had. Even with the heaters running full.
 
The sun is hot,



The sun is not,


A place where we could live,


But here on Earth there'd be no life,


Without the light it gives.

It's hard to determine what our energy consumption would be if we lived in a house that didn't have these flaws. I love my old house but I do not love anything at all about owing the electric company exorbitant amounts of money each month and the overhanging threat of being turned off if we can't make the payment. Even with the insulation we'd still need to climitize the house, see for homeschool, cook, wash laundry and heat water. On average I estimated we spend between $3000-5000 a year on electric usage. That's a lot of green for being very un-green.We're learning though. I really want to do this right from the beginning. Not go back and redo work because it was easier to hook up to the main line for power. I want independence and freedom from monthly bills and non-renewable energies be them my own works or burning fossil fuels. We'd have to piece-meal the system together based on our needs. Building an off grid house we don't get the luxury of walking in and plugging in. But that's okay. That's what I want...if we can figure it out.

The sun is far away,



About 93 million miles away!


And thats why it looks so small,


But even when its out of sight,


The sun shines night and day.

I'm about to go hippy on you

Which isn't that odd considering I rarely get a chance to shower. Many people probably think I am a hippy with my Unitarian Universalist bumperstickers, lack of showering and at the best of times at least one mismatched and/or dirty kid. But here I delve into another concept other than personal hygine and car decor, the topic of Homesteading.



Homesteading, what's that? Isn't that the credit I get on my taxes or something?? Well, at least in Florida it is but it's also a movement towards going backwards. How's that for confusing! In our search to find alternative (and inexpensive yet reliable) construction options I stumbled upon this fabulous concept called Homesteading. Homesteaders come in a whole kelidescope of depths. You can even be an Urban Homesteader!



Many Homesteaders I've come across are mild to spicy Christians. So if you're not so inclined in beliefs, try and sift out the pertinent information. Another word for Homesteading might be Sustaining. Sustainability is a word getting thrown around a whole lot by some pretty big wig non-sustainable Corps. It's almost ironic if it wasn't so sad really because their misuse of the word and concept is getting marred by their dependence on providing non-sustainable goods.

It really gets me that they give out reuseable GROCERY/SHOPPING bags. Yes, I too am moving away from plastic bags BUT the point would be to NOT keep shopping!!!!



Enter in Homesteading.



This brilliant little idea gives power back to people. Imagine not having to run to the store every time you needed something. Imagine knowing HOW to make your own consumable products, like soap, candles and cleaners and knowing WHAT is in each and every product! Forget highpriced organic veggies, grow your own! There is an abundance of information out there just waiting to be snatched up and put to good use.



Can't make/grow your own? Look into a community garden or find other local homesteaders. Put your money into the hands of others that share these foundations of freedom.



Some of my favorite homesteading sites are



www.homenstead.14.forumer.com
www.homesteadingtoday.com
www.countryplans.com
www.mulerslanefarm.com
www.chestnutfarms.com
www.swedefarmnaturals.com

Wow, building debt free, living off the land, leaving stressful jobs to be with your family, homeschooling, limited/no TV, living with less and so many other ideas verging on hippy. It's almost like the natural, granola movement but set about 100 years before that...