May 21st 2015 - Finished Story Sack

May 21st 2015 - Finished Story Sack

Yesterday I should have been at the last session of the family learning at the  school where we were meant to be finishing our story sacks and talking about them with the group.  But due to lil man being in hospital I wasn't there, but my story sack is now finished.

Pirates Love Underpants Story Sack was made by me, if you follow my blog you will have seen bits over the past 5weeks that I was making to go in it.  Here is a picture of the finished thing with everything and I will add pics and descriptions of other bits below.

First off was the sack, we were given plain canvas sacks and told we could decorate them how we liked.  A lot of the people in the group did them to the book they were putting in it, I decided to do it as a general sack so we could change the contents.  More info on my sack can be found here and here

My main story book for the sack was of the "pirates love underpants", my son already had dinosaurs and aliens and likes them and he likes pirates so this seemed a good choice.  As part of a story sack we were told that the sack has to have a "fiction/fact" book, so I bought the 100 facts on pirates shown above, this was much bigger than I thought it was going to be.

I  made a little "work book" linked to the story and laminated the pages so that they can be used again and again.  I have included white board pens and hi-lighter pens that rub off and a board rubber in a pencil case.

My son  asked if we could have a monkey like in the book, and brought me his toy one from upstairs.  This was ok but the monkey in the book had pants on, I asked my friend to make me a pair of knitted pants for him.  Her first attempt didn't work and we ended up with a monkey "mooning" us, which was quite funny.

My friend had them back (after I embarrssed her on facebook with the "mooning monkey") and re-made them so they fit him better.  I was very grateful as I can't knit. They did look good once done.  I added a gold earing to his right ear, and made him a banana to go in his hand.  (Banana instructions are here.)

I made a Pirate and a Parrot hand puppet to go in it.  The parrot was a "wash mit/flannel" bought off ebay, but was green.  The parrot in the book was red, so I glued red feathers all over its back and wings and made it a tail.  I also made it a pair of underpants like in the book.  My boys didn't know about the parrot as I didn't make a post or tell them I had bought it.

I made a Golden Pants Trophy  like the pirates are hunting for in the book.  My boys thought it was really good.

I bought the dvd "So you want to be a Pirate" and added it to the bag, it's only 18minutes long but tells you things you need to do to be a pirate etc.  I didn't realise it was so short I thought it was a proper film.

I bought a travel version of the traditional game pop up pirate and I made a set of  matching pairs underpants cards.  When they were printed you could see the pants through the paper so I made a sheet the same size as the cards using the cover of the book, cut them out and put on the back of pictures of pants and then laminated and cut out.  Now you can't see which pants are which.  I printed out a mini instruction card and placed them all in a small drawstring bag.

Last week at the family learning I was given a small wooden treasure chest which I decorated and added gems and coins to.  This was also meant to be a suprise for the bag, but I forgot to put it up before the boys came home from school so they saw it.

Lastly I added a (brand new) pair of boxer shorts (Aldi had packs of 3 reduced to £1.49 and they are next size up for my eldest son but now only has 2 pairs) and an eye patch so that my son(s) can dress as a pirate in underpants when we read and re-tell the story with the props.

Here's my lil man as a pirate in underpants with the parrot puppet.

I really enjoyed this course at the school it has been good fun and my kids like their story sack.  Hopefully I will be able to make a different one (or 2) so that we can change them round from time to time.  They want to put it in the car.

May 11th 2015 - Making underpants (for a parrot)

May 11th 2015 - Making underpants (for a parrot)

Yes you read that right I am making underpants for a parrot!  Not a real one but a hand puppet, well it was bought as a wash mitt/flannel, but wont be by the time I have finished with it.  This is linked to the story sack I am making at family learning at the school.  The book Pirates love underpants has a parrot in it as well as the monkey.

My kids don't know about the parrot puppet, they have seen most bits that are going in the story sack but I have kept the parrot from them as well as few other bits.  I used this underpant template as the basic idea to make them, but the parrot in the book has shorts as underpants so I had to alter the shape to make them work.

I have sat and stitched the underpants and then stitched them to the puppet.  I plan to add feather to it at the school on wednesday to make it look better.

I think my kids are safe in the knowledge that I wont be starting to make their underpants as it's not that easy!!! LOL!

May 4th 2015 - Matching pairs game

May 4th 2015 - Matching pairs game

As part of my Story Sack for family learning I have made an Underpants matching pairs game.  The idea was from the link which is linked to the Aliens love underpants book.

Rather than using that 1 I went on the net and found loads of bright, colourful,patterned underpants and put them in a grid so that I can cut them out and laminate them.  I then realised that the images could be seen through the A4 white paper so I printed out the image from the cover of the book in the same size grid and stuck them to the back of the pants - making them non-visable.

There are a total of 24 pairs of underpants that I have made for the game, and they will be going in a mini bag to keep them safe and together.

April 27th 2015 - Golden Pants Trophy

April 27th 2015 - Golden Pants Trophy

To go in my story sack for family learning I decided I would make and add a Golden Pants Trophy like the one the Pirates are hunting are hunting for.

I picked up a pack of trophies in £1 shop, this is one of them:

I painted the bottom part and the stem with gold glitter nail varnish - I think it had about 5 coats in the end to get a nice thick gold colour.

I then hunted the net for a pattern to make underpants and found this one:
 

As you can see I cut it in half to use as I would have had problems fixing an "all in 1" pair round the trophy because of the stem etc.

I had some gold sparkly/sequin material in the cupboard which I thought would be great and look really like a gold trophy:

I drew round the pants template and cut out 2 pairs of the pants.  I also added a piece of material across the top of the 2 pairs of pants but this didn't work so I had to remove it.  I stitched the pants together leaving the crutch area open so that I could get it onto the trophy.  I added some goldish ribbon to the pants to make the "Y-front" markings.

I stuffed the middle of the trophy with pillow stuffing and wrapped some all around the handles and the outside of the trophy.  I then very carefully (and hard) got the pants onto the trophy where I added more stuffing to them to make sure the whole of the pants were stuffed and the right shape.

I finally sewed the bottom of the pants together and the finished Golden Pants Trophy looks like this:

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and so are the boys who the story sack will be for.