PIRATE LOOT BAG With Hidden Treasure Map

I love pirate loot, the gold coins and sparkly diamonds.

I volunteered this summer, 2012, to plan and implement some crafting projects for my community. This is one of the activities that we will be doing. The age range is 4th grade through 8th and it is an introduction to sewing craft. The children will learn how to do a straight seam and how to finish that seam. Of course, there is also the need to create the secret treasure map contained inside of the bag.

SUPPLIES

WHAT YOU WILL NEED:
  Sewing machine and thread
material - I used black jean fabric from Wal-Mart
Key ring
Scissors
Computer, Heat transfer paper, printer, iron
   Sharpies
   Loot - more on this later

HEAT TRANSFER DESIGNS:

I typed BLANK PIRATE TREASURE MAP and PIRATE SKULL into a search engine and then selected images. Scroll down until you find what you want. These are the two I picked. One will decorate the outside of the Loot Bag and one will be the hidden map craft for the inside of the bag.

Print out your designs on heat transfer paper. I took a picture of the kind I used. It was for dark fabrics.

My printer is a HP Deskjet printer and it works very well with heat transfer paper.

CUTTING OUT THE BAG:

You can do these any size you wish. For simplicity, I used a sheet of copy paper. Place one side of the copy paper along the seam of the fabric, pin down and cut.

Fray the top edges of your bag.

USING THE IRON:

I decided to have this step complete prior to craft day.

The Black and White Skull and Crossbones art were for the front of the bag and the blank treasure map is for the inside. The idea is that if you turn the bag inside out, you will find the map.

I took pictures to document the placement.

SEW IT UP:

There will be a simple ring closure. The top of the bag gets stuffed through the ring to secure items inside.

LOOT:

The large acrylic gems came from Michael's, which is a crafting supply store. I found them in the wedding aisle. They were a table top type decoration and came in many colors and sizes. Reasonably priced.

The smaller acrylic gems are fish tank gravel. It is called Top Fin acrylic crystal aquarium stones.

Costume jewelry all came from Goodwill or garage sales.

The best part, and the most expensive, was the gold coins. They were purchased from the Great American Coin Company online. They have a whole section for pirate loot. Well worth the cost.

CREATING THE TREASURE MAP:

This is where all the fun is. Print off some pirate images to help the children know what to draw. Some drew sharks and exploding vulcanoes. Sea monsters and tidal waves. There was even a skull waterfall.

Use Sharpies for the durability.

CRAFTING DAY:

For crafting day, we had pirate bandanas and flags purchased from the Oriental Trading Company. We also had pirate snacks consisting of Root Beer Rum and Pirate Booty Popcorn, Gold Fish and Ring Pop suckers.

Some of the children created their treasure maps while others were sewing.

When all the bags were finished, we went on a treasure hunt to find gold and diamonds.

Thanks.