The craftiness of the pirate party

So this is what I made for the party in greater detail.

Each child was offered a bandanna which I made from a synthetic pirate printed fabric. I simply cut 20 inch squares - you could hem if needed, but this fabric was not going to fray so was ideal for this project.

I also found exceptionally cheap eye patches and moustaches to accompany the bandanna




With the left over material I simply top stitched the off cuts - which I shaped ever so lightly - onto bright yellow twill . To make a matching garland



Inside the party favour bag was a zipper pull, which I made using shrinky dinks. If the kids were older and a I had smaller group I would have provided them with a pencil template to colour in and make them up on the day as a party activity.

Like wise with the peg dolls - but the age range at this party was 2- 6 and I had 24 of them. Hence the hiring of a professional pirate for entertainment.



THE PARTY BAGS





To make these beauties me hearties you need

• Calico/ muslin (a think grade is preferable)
• Clear Contact
• Stamps for decorating I got mine from the wonderful yellow owl workshop
• Ink
• Grommets
• Sewing machine
• Baking paper
• Pencils

Firstly cut out the the pieces needed to construct a lunch sack I followed the Martha Stewart pattern and tutorial but reduced the sizing down to 5 inch x 17.5 inch for the main panel and 2.5 x 7.5 for the side panels.

I then decorated the front panel using the yellow workshop stamps - I found the mid point - to ensure the pattern was repeated on either side of the lunch sack when sewn up.



Lay baking paper down on the iron board the with fabric right side facing upwards- now cover with contact - and then place an other layer of baking paper on top. Baking paper protects the iron and the ironing board cover!



Then iron - you can use iron on vinyl but it is rather expensive and book covering contact is $2 a roll.




Then cut contact away - basically you are left with a form of home-made oil cloth.

I then sewed the lunch sack according to the Martha Stewart instructions - skip to my lou also has a great lunch sack tutorial (there are quite a few out there)



The only hitch is that the contact is still a wee bit tacky - I have 2 sewing machines one for delicate things and one for these kind of projects - but you do need to clean your needle regularly during this project (I made 24 of them) - I also gave the sewing machine a good clean after I completed the project. Also use a GOOD quality cotton cause this kind of project cause cheaper cottons to break continually

Once bag is assembled I used the zig zag stitch across the top of the sack and then inserted 10mm grommets in the four top corners and fed a pencil through - done. If anything is unclear would be more then answer any questions......