Windsock From Grocery Bags
Last week we got "the call" from my daughter's nursery. Someone tested positive for covid and now we have to quarantine for 10 days. By day 3 we'd gone quite feral (sorry neighbors who have put their house for sale - we're not deliberately trying to depress the market value).
On day 8 we decided to make a windsock out of a plastic bag so that we could run round the garden with it, further bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood.
There were several posts (on what we refer to as "smug mum blogs" where kids (or more accurately their parents) had made wind socks out of paper bags and tissue paper, but we thought a plastic bag would be more robust and we found a nice bright orange one that would do the job) - as an aside orange seems to be the only gender neutral colour for kids. No idea why.
On day 8 we decided to make a windsock out of a plastic bag so that we could run round the garden with it, further bringing down the tone of the neighbourhood.
There were several posts (on what we refer to as "smug mum blogs" where kids (or more accurately their parents) had made wind socks out of paper bags and tissue paper, but we thought a plastic bag would be more robust and we found a nice bright orange one that would do the job) - as an aside orange seems to be the only gender neutral colour for kids. No idea why.
Supplies
- Plastic bag/s
- Garden cane/bamboo cane
- Wire (we used pipe cleaners because we had them in and were prohibited from going out and getting anything more robust, but a metal coat hanger made into a circle with pliers would work well)
- String
- something sticky like tape (something that will stick the plastic together but won't hurt your kid. A hot glue gun would be great if your kid is responsible enough to deal with not sticking their hands in it, but if this is an activity to get you through the day then tape would be just fine)
- Garden cane/bamboo cane
- Wire (we used pipe cleaners because we had them in and were prohibited from going out and getting anything more robust, but a metal coat hanger made into a circle with pliers would work well)
- String
- something sticky like tape (something that will stick the plastic together but won't hurt your kid. A hot glue gun would be great if your kid is responsible enough to deal with not sticking their hands in it, but if this is an activity to get you through the day then tape would be just fine)
Work Out Your Pattern
A windsock is basically a tube which is bigger on one end than the other. The bigger end is reinforced to keep it open and it's attached (from the bigger end) to a stick with string.
That's all you're aiming to do. Once you've got the tube you can decorate it like a fish or whatever, or not.
As you'll see in the next step we deconstructed the main bag and that's how we chose the size. It was about 80cm long once we'd taken off the handles so that's how big it ended up. It's actually quite big, but you need to go bold to truly lower the tone of the neighbourhood.
That's all you're aiming to do. Once you've got the tube you can decorate it like a fish or whatever, or not.
As you'll see in the next step we deconstructed the main bag and that's how we chose the size. It was about 80cm long once we'd taken off the handles so that's how big it ended up. It's actually quite big, but you need to go bold to truly lower the tone of the neighbourhood.
Deconstruct Your Bags and Get Going
We cut the side seams of the bag to make it flat.
We then decided we wanted it to be a bit bigger at the big end so chopped out a triangle from another bag.
We stuck the triangle to the side at the big end and chopped back the edge of the main bag so that both sides were straight (as straight as a kid cuts) lines. A triangle with it's nose cut off if you will.
We then stuck the other sides together to make a tube with one end bigger than the other. Then I tidied up the ends so they were straight.
At this point you could skip the next step and go on to adding the reinforcement at the big end and attaching it to your stick. But I was trying to kill time so we made ours into a fish.
We then decided we wanted it to be a bit bigger at the big end so chopped out a triangle from another bag.
We stuck the triangle to the side at the big end and chopped back the edge of the main bag so that both sides were straight (as straight as a kid cuts) lines. A triangle with it's nose cut off if you will.
We then stuck the other sides together to make a tube with one end bigger than the other. Then I tidied up the ends so they were straight.
At this point you could skip the next step and go on to adding the reinforcement at the big end and attaching it to your stick. But I was trying to kill time so we made ours into a fish.
Decorate
You really don't need to do this, and honestly my kid lost interest at this point so our decoration was pretty minimal.
Because I'd chopped up a second bag to make our windsock the right shape we had some gathered plastic that looked like fins anyway so we stuck those on. At this point it all looked quite classy, but thankfully I own a four year old so we got over that quite quickly.
My kid made eyebrows out of a crisp packet. But not eyes, because for some reason the fish didn't want eyes, and honestly I'm not a fish so maybe she's onto something I don't know about. She also added stickers.
You could do loads of decorating and it could be really fun. Permanent markers (if you have a child who could deal with only drawing on the bags, which I do not), stuck on bits of plastic bags or bits of tissue paper would look great. The only consideration is nothing too heavy, though let's be honest if it was too heavy to fly and no one had cried then it would still be a win.
Because I'd chopped up a second bag to make our windsock the right shape we had some gathered plastic that looked like fins anyway so we stuck those on. At this point it all looked quite classy, but thankfully I own a four year old so we got over that quite quickly.
My kid made eyebrows out of a crisp packet. But not eyes, because for some reason the fish didn't want eyes, and honestly I'm not a fish so maybe she's onto something I don't know about. She also added stickers.
You could do loads of decorating and it could be really fun. Permanent markers (if you have a child who could deal with only drawing on the bags, which I do not), stuck on bits of plastic bags or bits of tissue paper would look great. The only consideration is nothing too heavy, though let's be honest if it was too heavy to fly and no one had cried then it would still be a win.
Reinforce the Opening
The aim of this step is to hold the opening open so that wind can enter the windsock.
For obvious, trapped in the house, reasons we were limited as to what we had to hand, which was pipe cleaners.
We decided to "sew" them into the plastic. Potentially we should have made a channel and if we were using something more robust than sellotape maybe we would have, but I thought the risk of a channel unfurling itself was greater than the risk of the bag ripping where we'd sewn the pipe cleaners in, and for extra stability we taped over some bits too.
By sewing the pipe cleaners in what I mean is that we made a running stitch using the pipe cleaners, twisting them together to make up the length we needed to go all the way around the the fishes mouth. This was actually too hard for my kid so I did it while she complained about something else in a different room.
I attached three bits of string to the pipe cleaners and taped over where they attached for extra reinforcement. I knotted the other end of the strings together and attached it to the cane.
For obvious, trapped in the house, reasons we were limited as to what we had to hand, which was pipe cleaners.
We decided to "sew" them into the plastic. Potentially we should have made a channel and if we were using something more robust than sellotape maybe we would have, but I thought the risk of a channel unfurling itself was greater than the risk of the bag ripping where we'd sewn the pipe cleaners in, and for extra stability we taped over some bits too.
By sewing the pipe cleaners in what I mean is that we made a running stitch using the pipe cleaners, twisting them together to make up the length we needed to go all the way around the the fishes mouth. This was actually too hard for my kid so I did it while she complained about something else in a different room.
I attached three bits of string to the pipe cleaners and taped over where they attached for extra reinforcement. I knotted the other end of the strings together and attached it to the cane.
Play
Run around the garden crashing your fish windsock into all the plants and being distracted from the fact you haven't been out or seen anyone else in a long long time.