Kids Crafts: Making Flags with Kids

Ever since we had a street party for the Royal Wedding, Red Ted LOVES flags – we had bunting up on the street, as well as big Union Jack by the gazebos. Everywhere we go, he always points out the flags to me… “I love flags, Mummy”. “Let’s count the flags”. “Look Mummy, flags!”. So I thought maybe we could make one! So let me bring you “Making Flags with Kids”.

The Book

A Box of Tricks, Katie Cleminson

I first saw this lovely book reviewed over at Playing by the Book (you MUST visit to read the full review, much better than mine! And of course to see Zoe’s beautiful associated craft). It is a wonderfully magical book about a little girl, who is given a very special box for her birthday.. she jumps right in and turns into a magician. The adventures start. The story is simple and straightforward, but the illustrations are what make this book wonderful. Lots of liberally splashed and dripped colours on every page… perfect for our craft today….

…The Craft

We wanted to make a “proper” flag. Not just one of out paper, but out of fabric, with sewn seems and everything. So I got out some plain Hessian (though an old sheet or shirt would be fab too). The tricky bit is that small children are quite “limited” in their painting skills. Not that a wildly coloured piece of fabric isn’t great. But I wanted to help the children create something more unified and something that they could work on together. This is were The Box of Tricks is the perfect inspiration: I have been meaning to do some “splash” painting with the children for quite some time now. We had a hot day and this was going to be perfect… I confess that we used ordinary paints, so this would not be a waterproof flag.. we have it out on nice sunny days and then it comes in and decorated Red Ted’s bedroom. He loves it. I am sure you can do this craft with fabric dyes or by getting some sort of fixant to apply later.

Oh and I have seen a number of wonderful splat paintings linked up through the Kids Get Crafty linky… do link them up again if you have time. Would be great to see them again!

Materials: large piece of plain fabric, paints, brushes, masking tape. Sewing machine & stick for finish.

1. Use masking tape to create a pattern at the centre of the flag. We decided to make a simple sun (we cut a circle and then stuck it down with strips of masking tape as rays…). Red Ted loved sticking the masking tape down. We took turns and I helped him align then rays.

2. Go out and get splashing with paint! The children LOVED it! Even Pip Squeak sat happily splashing. It kept the busy for a least half an hour!

3. Once dried we removed the masking tape and painted an orange sun. I did the rays and Red Ted the body of the sun. Once THAT was dry he also added tiny eyes and a tiny mouth. Too cute.

4. Sew. Of course you don’t have to sew your flag. Or you can hand sew it or you can use wonderweb (bondaweb) to neat the edges. But I thought it would be nice to make a lovely finish for it. Also I think it is great for the children to see the sewing machine in action – so that one day, they maybe feel like having a go (when they are of course old enough). Red Ted was very excited and a little scared of it!