Tilmas!

Our local Catholic homeschool group has recently gotten some families together through a co-op sort of program.  Mostly, it is a way for our families to get together while imparting learning of the faith to different age groups.  The moms all pitch in where the various needs are (teaching, organizing, infant/toddler child care, teacher aides, etc.) and it has been great so far!

At our last group event, the kids in my girls' age group made tilmas in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, on December 12th.  These tilmas were made of paper grocery store bags upon which each child's coloring of Our Lady was glued on as her image appeared on Juan Diego's tilma.  My girls were so proud of them!

Well, having an almost two-year-old boy in the house, it is a miracle those tilmas lasted as long as they did (a few weeks).  Then, within a 24 hour period, both tilmas were ripped, much to the dismay of the girls.

Looking at the paper bag tilmas, it didn't take me long to realize that I could quickly put together some more lasting ones that the girls could play with and that Luke could handle without destroying.
They were really easy to make.  I took pieces of fabric and cut them to the right length, cutting out a hole in the middle of the fabric for the wearer's head to go through.  Then I cut out a different piece of fabric and used fabric paint to draw the image of Our Lady of Gaudalupe.  Using fusible webbing cut to size, I ironed the fabric with the image onto the front of the tilma fabric.  I zigzagged around the image to secure it further and then cut fringes into the bottom edges of the tilma.  The girls really liked this and it was so easy!

Here is Kassia modeling one of the original tilmas.  She's actually wearing Nadia's old one, which may be why she has this unexcited look on her face.

Here is the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe that I drew on with fabric paint (I was looking at the original drawing in order to draw the image.  As a side note, I am thrilled about how Mary's eyes turned out!  The paint just kind of smudged on that section and I moved it around to make the paint look like eyes - it was definitely not talent.)

Here is the finished tilma.  This one was Nadia's.  I made Kassia's first, as her paper bag one was the first to be destroyed.  Unfortunately, the colorful fabric I used for Kassia's image section of the tilma didn't show Our Lady very well.

Here are the girls modeling their tilmas, and then a photo of all three kids together.