Free Printable of Daniel for Sunday School

Happy Fourth of July!  This is such a wonderful (but crazy hectic) time of year for us!  A visit to all the grandparents, aunts and uncles has been a joy!  It's always bittersweet going back to your hometown and see all the familiar sights and faces, yet there's so much that has changed and, in fact, you yourself aren't the same person you used to be either...  Moving is strange like that, I suppose.

 

But more to the point of this post, I've been noticing an increased interest in Sunday School printables, so I want to share more with you today.  We've decided to take our Sunday School down a notch or two during the summer.  The barn-turned-community center we're meeting in has a great playground just outside that the kids can't resist this time of year!  The teachers still bring a craft and have a story, but it's much more relaxed!  One of the last lessons we completed before our break was that of Daniel in the Lion's Den and I thought I'd pass along the printable of the craft we made to go with it. 

 

 

 

Before I get too far, though, I thought this was a good re-telling of the story:

Daniel Retelling

 And of course, there's always Veggie Tales!

But the original story is from the book Daniel chapter 6. If you're not super familiar with it, it makes more sense if you read the five chapters previous.

 

To set up, I moved the tables into a big square and threw a bunch of pillows in the center to create a "den" that the kids all climbed into to hear the story that morning.  They had a ball all pretending to be lions! 

 

To complete the craft, after everything is colored in as you want it, cut the paper vertically to separate the den section, then the opening in the ceiling. 

 

Next cut the outline of Daniel out.  Attach yarn/string to the back of Daniel's hand for him to hold on to as he is lowered into (and later raised from) the den. 

 

I like to tape the other end of the string to the back of the rectangle, too so pieces don't get separated.  Then all together it works as a teaching tool as your reading the story or for the little ones to play with later.

 

Click on image below for full sized printable:

 

 

 

 

 



There are so many great Sunday School programs out there, but sometimes you just need one story, and for that purpose, I hope some of you can find this useful!  I hope we can impart to our kids what faith looks like and how awesome and in-control our God is! He knows what we're going through and when we choose to be faithful, just like Daniel.

KISS Play Dress or Shirt (Keep It Simple, Sweetie)

Pretty sure I figured out (one of) my problem(s) this week.  I often feel like I do nothing well, but I'm interested in doing almost everything.  You've heard the phrase Jack of all Trades?  Me to a t.  It's becoming clear to me as I see the same attitude in my tiny daughter whose favorite phrase right now is, "Me got this."  I got it, I'm good, I can figure this out by myself.  Apparently, from my own mothers stories, my similar phrase at age two was, "Do it by myself."  I'm sure it's quite common among two year olds, but I evidently never grew out of that!  I have this desire in me to figure things out by myself and just be as self sufficient as possible.  And most often this comes out in a joy to learn new skills such as cooking from scratch, animal tending, and homemade utensils and clothing.  But then I'm on to the next thing, often without honing my skills to an adept level, but just enough to get by in a pinch if I needed to. 

Ah, well.  Perhaps expertise will simply come with age?  Speaking of which, is it just me, or has time picked up the pace a little bit?  It seems to be screaming by with a 4 and 2 year old growing in our home!  Wow!  Every day they amaze me!  And every day I'm amazed by which of their clothes no longer fit! =)  Even a non-parent friend of mine commented yesterday how absurd he found it to spend a fortune on a child's wardrobe when they so quickly out grow (or wear through) it! 

And while children's clothes can be less expensive, great deals can be found a thrift shops, and little blessings of hand-me-downs sometimes appear, there's something very satisfying in making something specifically for your child.  While I love knit and crochet, the investment of time alone into the project makes it a precious commodity that I tend to reserve for occasions such as church or the like.  But more often than not, my children live in play clothes.  I've made (refashioned) several simple play dresses for my daughter, but have been hesitant to share them on here because they're not perfect, not well-finished they're just comfortable play dresses that she will outgrow in a couple months!  But for those of you who might have a similar interest and goal, I'll sketch out my quick process.  Usually this dress takes me less than an hour, start to finish.

1)  Select a shirt: I do this from my give-away pile.  Some stains and small tears can be avoided depending on where you place your pattern.  Select a long sleeved shirt if you want your new dress to have long sleeves.

I wanted to put this here because it's often difficult to determine the shape of the sleeve.  You want to shoot for this bell shape where the sleeve will connect to the bodice so that it will hang well. 

2) Trace pattern: take a shirt or dress that currently fits (or mentally add a slight margin if you know you want it bigger), turn it inside out and fold it in half.  Likewise, fold the adult shirt in half. Line up he collar and, after you've determined how long you want the bodice to be, trace arm holes, sides and waist, lifting the sleeves to trace the arm holes if necessary.  Continue the waist cut all the way across the shirt.  This bottom rectangle will be your (already hemmed!) skirt section.  If you need to make it shorter, cut away desired strip size from the waist side.  Then determine how long you need the sleeves to be and line up the top folded edge before tracing it'sbell shape onto the sleeves of the shirt.  Don't forget seam allowance of about 1/4".   

3) Cut pieces: remember to consider seam allowance. 

4) Sew:  With right sides together, I like to start with the shoulders and sides of the top first.  Be sure you sew from the collar side toward the periphery on the shoulder seams so the collar is sure to line up.

 

 

     After this you can do a slight gather on the skirt, but I often just pin the bodice (right side out) to the skirt (inside out over the bodice so right sides are facing) at the quarter marks and then gently gather as I go. 

 

And to finish off with the sleeves, you need to sew the seam the length of the sleeve first, set it into the armhole of the bodice, and (pinned and right sides facing again) carefully sew around. 

 

 

 

 

New dress!  Time: 1 hour, Cost: $0 Ready to play and I won't worry a lick if it gets muddy, stained or torn!  This easily translates into a shirt pattern and you know it's going to fit your little one perfectly!  Though I tend to make mine on the larger side so she can wear it just a little bit longer! =)  I've used this concept for all the tops pictured.  As I mentioned, I'm not much of a sewer (Haha!  "Sewer!"  I mean "seamstress!"), so if you have any questions or I can provide better instructions in some way, I would love to hear from you!

Variation: with this sweater dress, I omitted the waistline and continued my side seams to the original bottom hem.

Variation: Use a men's dress shirt (and keep the pockets!)

Variation: no waist, higher bottom for shirt style that I did have to hem myself

Great Big Christmas Stocking

Busy week!  Josh is still working six 12 hour shifts getting equipment ready to transport to Prudhoe Bay, so we've been missing him.  Monday I was getting stuff done around the house and fell down the stairs while holding Fynn.  He slid a couple more on his own.  Oh man, I can't get the nightmare of a scene out of my head and I can't describe how awful I feel.  Little boys should get bumps and bruises that they cause themselves and learn lessons from, not because their mommma dropped them!  I could see he bonked his head in three spots.  Oh, and I think I prayed harder than I ever had before.  And Fynn stopped crying and I knew God had protected him!   We got him checked out at Urgent Care just to be diligent, but by this time he was flirting and smiling with the nurses again.
Tuesday I had my CPR/AED re-cert, Wednesday I worked, power-cleaned the house, and had Bible study, and today I got that steroid injection in the inflamed tendon in my wrist.  Fun times!  But, Fynn slept 9 hours straight last night, so we're both feeling pretty good today. After I got home I started to make Fynn's stocking (pattern below).
I got Josh and his buddy some coffee on my way into town this morning and saw raspberry chai on the menu.  I just had to try it and it was amazing!  Totally gave me a better outlook on life!  Sometimes, even when life is so good for me in general, I see that this world is just not fit for life and I long for heaven.  So many sad happenings.  But a raspberry chai reminded me that God does still have good things in store for us here while we actively wait for Him.

Okay, so for the pattern, you're going to need to print out these 2 pages: (You can click on these thumbnails and they will open full size, or adjust as necessary before printing.  Then line up at the arrows)

Other supplies:

• 1/2 yard of back fabric
• 1/2 yard of front fabric
• Other fabric as desired (If you're using the same pattern as the back, you should have enough in the 1/2 yard
• 1 yard piping or ribbon
• Thread for machine
• May need embroidery floss and needle

You could do a bunch of variations of this ,but you will need at least one full cut out of the whole thing, two if you want both sides completely plain. (Make sure your fabrics are facing the right way!)  If not, then cut out one of each A, B, C, and D for the cuff, heel and toe.  Be sure to add just about a quarter inch where they connect for seam overlap.  You can choose your variations, just cuff, just heel/toe, etc.

I am by no means a seamstress, but I thought I'd try to figure this one out on my own as I couldn't find a stocking for Fynn that I liked.  I was making Fynns to be similar to these that Josh's folks got for us a couple years back:

Okay, once you have all the pieces cut out, completely assemble the front.  Sew the cuff, heel and toe onto the sock body.  Then fold the cuff back at the top and sew in place so that your top edge is the fold.  You don't have to worry about folding edges or anything if you do a zig zag stitch across the seam, the piping or ribbon will cover it.  Which brings us to you next step.  Since the piping I used was so bulky, I tacked it in place by hand every inch or using an invisible stitch with embroidery floss.  Front complete!

I had to double check that my back fabric was going to be facing the right way, then did the same top hem as on the front, making sure that the height was just a smidgen lower so it would be invisible when hung empty.  Then put the outside faces together and sew all but the to opening.  For this step I had to "jump" over every section of the piping because it kept making my sewing machine angry. =)  I then went back and sewed over these sections by hand also.

Before you turn it inside out, take a loop of your remaining piping and sew it into the back corner to hang on a hook on your mantle.  Flip it inside out and fill with lots of Christmas goodies!  I realized mine was a bit bunchey, but after I ironed it out, it was much better.