sharing pirates

*** First and admin note.  It has come to my attention that it is not always clear which of us ladies are writing each blog.  We try to use the "label" function to label each of our posts, but that is at the bottom of the post, so I can understand it would not be obvious.  So, I (Major Moma) am going to try to identify myself right away in the posts I (Major Moma) write.  I will do so with the parenthesis and my name and use a different font. 

You may also notice it is me because I have started to color some of my words according to the theme in my head.  I don't know why I do it, but it is fun.****

OK, on to the post. 

One of the best things about having a cool or special gadget/talent/space, is being able to share it.  So when my friend asked for my help on her soon-to-be 4 year old's birthday party, I was excited to be a part of it.  I was not a ton of help but we brainstormed ideas for a fun pirate party.









And I volunteered to embroider shirts for the Birthday Boy and the guests.  My Friend bought a couple of packs of t-shirts and gave them to me to decorate.

I bought two different embroideries.  The one for the Birthday Boy that was an image of a boy dressed up as a pirate.  Super cute.  And all the other kids had a skull and cross bones embroidered on their shirts.  I made most of them classic black.  But for some of the girls, I used hot pink.  Or, shocking pink as my daughter calls it.



My friend bought a package of 4T and a package of XS t-shirts.  According to the package, the XS should have been one size bigger than the 4T.  However, they were simply 1/2 inch wider and not any longer.

 



So, I searched my stash of scrap knit fabric to see if I had anything to add as a band on the bottom to lengthen the shirts for the bigger kids.  As it so happened, I had a some skull and cross bone knit fabric that was exactly the same weight as the t-shirts.



fun and exahsting day

So, if you ever have this issue, you can lengthen the t-shirt by cutting a strip that is as long as the bottom of the t-shirt + seam allowance.  And make sure it is twice the width of what you want the finished band to be.



a battle with "real" pirates





Then, you sew the short ends together to make a loop and press it in half, wrong sides together.  Finally, line up the raw edges with the bottom edge of the t-shirt and sew around the bottom. (I used my serger but a zig-zag stitch would work too.)  Then press the seam toward the main body of the shirt and you have a nice contrasting band.



other fun pirate accessories that other creative women made

 The girls and I were sick that day, so only the husband and Eli were able to actually attend and participate in all that pirate fun.  But, luckily, my husband can tie balloon animals/things so he came armed with many balloons and he made parrots for all the little pirates.

From all reports, it was a fun day!