With the weather warming up, my kids are spending more and more time outside. Their favorite activity is jumping on the trampoline and their favorite trampoline game - ninja school. Basically ninja school is my oldest child giving orders or "training" his younger siblings. Keep in mind this child has never had a single karate or taekwondo lesson in his life. Apparently though this doesn't matter and he is the "expert." When they're on the trampoline, I hear a lot of: "Now when you jump up in the air kick your leg out to the side." "Jump up and then roll into a somersault." "Both of you karate punch each other." As you might guess, ninja school is not always the safest game especially when they introduce their plastic light sabers into the training. Ninja school injuries hit a peak last summer. Plus, with cousins in town visiting, we soon had to ban the use of light sabers. Well, this wasn't fun according to the kids. Light sabers are necessary in ninja training. So, what to do? Sew your own light saber! My oldest or ninja school expert came up with the idea one evening as we were making crafts. I thought it was a great idea and we got to work.
It's quite simple really. First, draw your pattern. I had my son do this since it was his idea. The pattern is nothing more than a rectangle at your desired width and length. My kids wanted to keep their light sabers short so as they put it "have more control." I had the kids pick out one fabric for the handle and another fabric for the "sword" top. Using felt is best for the sword part of the light saber. Felt is stiffer and keeps its shape after all the intense training and fighting. For the light saber's button, we sewed a button on or you can just draw it on using a sharpie as one child decided to do. Once the top and bottom halves of the light saber are sewed together using a sewing machine, you can stitch the outside of the light saber using embroidery thread. Stitch around, but leave a hole. This hole is where you'll be filling the light saber with stuffing. You may need to use a pencil to get stuffing up to the very top of the light saber. Once all the stuffing is in, finish stitching around the light saber and you're done! This project is very kid friendly. With my supervision, I had the kids help with the sewing, stitching and stuffing. Now your child like mine is ready for a gentler ninja school!
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