Wednesday 24 October 2012

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!

20 comments:

  1. These are such good ideas-especially the dressing up! My boys have been obsessed with their sock drawer lately. They make bugs out of them and use them as sleeping bags for their little toys. I've been so frustrated with everything getting stretched out. It totally makes sense to use the old ones!

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  2. Awesome list of creative ideas! I really like the sock butterflies, and I've never heard of the bubble snake - definitely something I must try with the little ones.

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  3. These are great creative ideas. I keep wondering where all those socks go!
    Donna @onceuponasewingmachine.com

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  4. Some really cute ideas! I love the sock butterflies! :) I may have to make some to hang out with my sock monkeys!

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  5. Great Ideas! I always have extra socks lying around that drive me crazy. Now I'll put them to good use.

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  6. I love this. I have been thinking of doing a sock round up myself every since we made a sock puppet with an odd sock. http://jennifischer.blogspot.com/2012/06/wordless-wednesday-snake-sock-puppet.html

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  7. What great idea Coming by from a tip toe thru Tuesday

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  8. Ok... LOVE the butterflies! I hope you are gonna link-up again this week at Mom's Library Weekly Link-Up.
    http://heymommychocolatemilk.blogspot.com/2012/10/moms-library-link-up-3-for-me.html

    Thanks and Be Blessed,
    Julie

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  9. These are such great ideas, love the butterflies!

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  10. What fun and creative ideas!! Thank you for sharing at Sharing Saturday!!

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  11. I love the donuts! I want to make those for my kids for Christmas! I Hope you'll link up to my new Eco Kids Tuesdays: http://organicaspirations.blogspot.com/2012/11/eco-kids-link-up.html

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    1. Thank you for linking up! I am featuring you this week, and I hope you'll join us again! I also pinned your post: http://pinterest.com/pin/48554502204156743/

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    2. Thanks Becki, I've popped over again and linked up our Autumn Masks, thanks for pinning too!

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  12. A great innovative idea.Love your post.Really cute and creative ideas! Tower made of socks looks so nice.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by, glad you liked the sock tower

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  13. You can also make hair donuts. Just cut the toe off and roll it up. Then you can make sock buns by putting your hair in a pony, and sliding the donut on like a scrunchie, then kind of twisting and wrapping the ends of your hair around 'til you run out of hair. It looks really cute and you can make curls.

    Here, I'll leave a youtube video that explains it a lot better XD

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FV-YO46E8Y

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  14. The informations are so lovely and so usefull so thank you very much. Be sure i will use all of them keeping in my mind.Have a goog luck.

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  15. Almost in our homes have useless odd socks. You have given here amazing tips to use those odd socks. All tips are very enjoyable while trying. I will definitely try some ideas with my odd socks.

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