Things to do with odd socks and kids

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Who has a sock fairy in their house?  I have one or maybe a whole gardens worth of fairies!  They sneak in and magic the socks away so that I'm left with handfuls of odd socks - it drives me potty!  We moved house recently and I vainly hoped I'd discover loads of socks behind the washing machine, but NO they've disappeared forever!

So, what to do with odd socks??  How about trying out some of these ideas with your kids?

1 - Hunt them down with a matching pairs game

Unpaired socks get put in a box in our house in case their partner is in the next load.  So, I got out our sock box to see if we could find out if we had any pairs - Champ enjoyed this matching pairs game (little did he know he was doing my housework!).  Anything left over I decided was officially an odd sock and fair game to craft with!!

2 - Bubble Snakes

When we made bubble snakes this summer we used a flannel, but you could just as easily use an old sock.  Check out the original post for more details.

3 - Play dressing up!

Turns out Champ considers dressing up in Daddy's old socks great fun.  Apparently these turned him into some kind of Kung Foo fighter and he pranced round the room in them for ages.

4 - Chop them up and dress up some more!

I chopped off the toes and told Champ they were superhero cuffs, cue some more dressing up play.  If you were proper crafty I reckon a few stars or lightning bursts would make these a permanent dressing up box feature.

5 - Make sock butterflies

I found this idea at Love and Lollipops where there is a full tutorial.  You take an odd sock, stuff it with cotton balls, tie off sections with rubber bands, use the pipe cleaner for antennae, felt for wings and give it some googly eyes and I sewed on a smile!

Ta da, pretty cute right!  I wish I could take better pictures as they are really quite awesome (even if I say so myself!).

And, the boys certainly enjoyed playing with them!

6 - Make play food donuts

I found the tutorial for these at Bugaboo, mini, mr & me, again a lot more detailed than mine (have you guessed tutorials aren't my thing!).  But, basically you snip off the toes, put one sock inside the other, roll them up, I sewed up the ends, then add a felt topping and some sewn on sprinkles.  Then play!  I made a couple and they've been a fun addition to our plastic play food.

7 - Make a sock tower

I saw the idea for this ages ago, but I can't remember where.  These make great stacking blocks for babies as obviously they're soft.

Want more ideas?  I have a whole Pinterest board about odd socks so check it out if you're looking to outsmart those darn sock fairies!! 

If you liked this why not check out some of my other 'Things to do with' posts.  So far we've had carrots, chestnuts (part one and two), acorns (part one and two) and pinecones, and don't forget to check out our facebook page too!