Sink the Pirate Ship

I went through many ideas in my head for how to make my Sink the Pirate Ship game. I thought about using some of that foam poster board stuff (I decided that would make my ship smaller than I thought my target audience would be capable of hitting), I thought of finding a large appliance box (that one sounded like lots of effort to find someone tossing out big boxes), and finally settled on buying a thin sheet of plywood and painting it (I even looking it up online- it would have been about $6). But then three things got in the way of that plan- #1: I was impatient, #2: I rarely have a desire to go to Home Depot with children, and #3: I was feeling cheap. As I was wandering around my house admiring my new fence (It is beautiful by the way), I stumbled over the PVC pipe remains of our chicken coup, and a new idea came to mind.

The finished product. How did I get there? I shall show you.

 First, I went through my fabric stash and pulled out anything that looked like it might work. I laid them out to get an idea.

 After sewing my sky and water together, I cut out a ship outline. My "reference" was the pirate ship I can cut with the Paper Dolls Dress Up Cricut cartridge, but any picture or clip art image will do.

 I spray mounted the ship so that it would stay somewhat in place and then went around all the edges with a zig zag stitch to keep it in place. I did the same thing with the sails (except the upper sails, those I just stitched a straight line across the top). The flag and port holes I spray mounted on, but I ended up painting around their edges with puff paint instead of sewing them (the skull on the Jolly Roger was painted on as well).

 I used my small plates for hole placement and size. Yup, they are the same plates that I used to make the cannonballs.

 This is what it looked like cut out.

 I took more fabric and sewed big pockets that I attached to my holes (just make sure that the circumference of the pocket is at least as big as the circumference of the hole- a little bit bigger is OK since you can gather the pocket to make it fit much easier than stretching the pocket to fit the hole. I might have had to unpick all of the first pockets that I made and make them larger so that they would look better. As you can see in the picture above the pockets are hanging kind of funny). This step is optional. I just didn't want to have to go chasing all over my yard for stray balls. It also finished the look. (You could use this same idea to make those picture prop thingies (technical term I am sure) with the face cutouts. You also don't have to do a pirate theme- it would work for whatever you want.)

 I took another piece of fabric the same size as my picture for the back and sewed the two together. I would actually recommend attaching the two together before sewing in the pockets so that you can cut holes in the back fabric easier. This step could also be skipped if you wanted to just sew velcro or straps or sleeves for the posts to go through. As long as you can attach it to the PVC it should be fine.

I almost forgot to mention the upper sails. To finish them, I just folded them up, accordion style, and tacked them in place with some hand stitches. It gave it a nice little 3D touch.

After I had my fabric all finished, complete with dried paint (I added a few birds too- they are hard to see) I made a simple frame from the PVC. For mine, I was using 1" PVC pipe (that is what I had on hand) and I figured I would need to cut the horizontal posts 4" shorter to account for the elbows on the corners. I probably could have gotten away with closer to 3", but it works just fine the way it is. The other measurements weren't technical- just enough to get it off the ground. My ground braces are a little long, but my husband was cutting them and I just told him to cut me four shorter pieces whatever length would be the easiest. That is what he brought me. I ended up using 6 elbows and 4 tees in addition to the pipe. I think my finished horizontal measurement was 41". The height was a little more than that.

 The back view. To finish the edges on the back I did sew some bias tape around them. That was purely because I am silly like that. I also sewed a finishing seam around my pockets from the front. 

 Even the little Monkey has had fun playing with the pirate ship. She is pretty good from this distance.

My changed plans came with a bonus that I didn't even realize in the beginning- storage is going to be so much easier than if I had bought a sheet of plywood. It collapses down quite nicely. Another bonus is that the frame is interchangeable. I could make other bean bag toss games, or photo booth type thingies (I'm sure they must have a name, but I don't know what it is). The possibilities are endless.

PVC Kids Chair

Today my little Tiger was saying something about needing a chair. I remembered a picture I had seen on pinterest (one of those uploaded by user things with no post to follow up on). I also remembered that I had a bunch of PVC leftover from the chicken coop (not to worry, I washed all the pieces). I made it up as I went along, but kept notes so I could repeat it later. So, here is how I made Tiger a Thomas the Train chair so he can have something to sit in while playing at his train table.

PARTS

1: 10' length PVC Pipe ($3.39) cut into several pieces-

7@ 10"

6@ 6"

4@ 1 1/2" (could be a little shorter- just need to join tees and elbows without a gap)

8: PVC 1" Elbows ($.53 each)

6: PVC 1" Tees ($.64 each)

Fabric (can use one color cut twice or two contrasting ones for front and back)

2@ 9 3/4"x31 1/4"

2@ 6 1/4"x9 3/4"
*(I might even go up to 6 1/2" on the one piece- it fits at 6 1/4 but could be a little longer)*

Interfacing (same measurements as fabric, just to make it a little more sturdy)

Velcro (Sew On)- 3 strips cut 8 1'2" each

Spray Paint (if desired)

(The prices I pulled from Homedepot.com. Just the PVC adds up to $11.47, unless you happen to already have it on hand. I made my chair with things I already had around the house.)

1. Assemble chair like so. The small pieces are what hold the elbow and tee together in front and two tees at back with no gap.

2. Spray paint if desired. I used the blue leftover from the train table, and put a coat of clear on top of that. There were a couple spots on the armrests that got a little tacky- not sure if it was the paint or sticky fingers. 

 3. I made my seat cover so that it could be easily removed for washing. For the seat, take the two strips of fabric 9 3/4x31 1/4" and interfacing (the interfacing I had on hand was the heavy duty stuff that doesn't iron on. If you have the iron on stuff, just iron it on to one of your strips). With right sides together, sew down the two long sides and across one short side (1/2" seams). Clip corners, turn rightside out, and iron.

 4. With the short strips of fabric, do the same thing, except sew the two short sides and one long side. Clip corners, and turn. (And iron, as you can tell I hadn't yet in this picture).

 5. On the short piece, turn under and tuck in open end 1/2". Sew one side of a strip of velcro to close opening. Sew other half of velcro on opposite side as pictured.

 6. On the long piece, do the same thing, except the other half of the velcro should be sew 5 1/4" from the end (both pieces should be sewn on the back side of the fabric).

 7.  Repeat on other end of fabric (back side as well).

 8. Sew short strip to long strip 14 1/4" from bottom edge (it is almost in the center. It might even work if sewn in the center, but this is the way I did it). I used a fabric marking pen to draw a line in the center of the short piece, and at the 14 1/4" line on the big piece, lined them up, and sewed along my line.

 9. Attach seat cover to chair and enjoy. Monkey might have come along and stolen Tiger's chair (and Elephant). The chair ended up being the perfect size for my four year old (almost five), three year old, and even the 18 month old. 

My biggest problem with making this chair is that I only made one today. That means that Kitty and Monkey have spent the day trying to steal Tiger's chair. I have a bunch more pipe, and tees, but now I have to go pick up some more elbows before World War III breaks out in my living room.

NOTE:
The velcro on the front can come undone if the child is standing on the chair or putting a lot of weight in the seat. Next time, I think I will use some of those heavy duty snaps- just along the front. The velcro works perfectly fine in the other locations.


UPDATE:
After putting in snaps, I ended up just sewing along that front edge. The snaps held up the light-weight girls, but not my son. Fortunately, I was able to slide it on the chair without him seeing. I really didn't want him to discover that his chair can come apart.