Touch of Irish Socks
You won't believe how easy these are to make -- and they aren't even permanent! That's right, when St. Patrick's Day is over, these socks easily turn back into plain old socks. The best think about this project is that it costs next to nothing, compared to what it costs to buy fancy decorated socks at the store.
What You'll Need:
- Shrinky Dink Material
- Pair of plain white cuffed socks
- Colored Pencils
- 2 - 12 inch Gold Chenille Stems
- Scissors
- Hole Punch
- Oven
What to Do:
1. Trace the shamrock template below onto shrinky dink materials. You'll need one for each sock you want to decorate.
2. Color it in with colored pencils. Cut out the shamrocks.
3. Use the hole punch to make two holes in each shamrock. Space the holes evenly on each shamrock. These will be the button holes used to attach to the sock.
4. Bake in the oven according to the manufacturer's directions. Let cool completely.
5. Fold the cuff of each sock over. Make a note of which side of each sock you'll put your design on. Typically, you'll want to put one shamrock on each sock so that it will appear on the outside of each ankle when worn.
6. The chenille stem will act as the thread for this project. Poke one end of the gold chenille stem through the cuffed part of the sock from the back side to the front. Don't go through both layers of the cuff, just the outer layer. Put the chenille stem through one of the holes in the shamrock from the steps above. Do the same with the other end of the chenille.
7. You should now have the chenille poking through the cuff of the sock and each end going through one of the holes in the shamrock, just like a button.
Now twist the two ends of the chenille together (like a twist tie) once or twice to secure it.
8. Tie the chenille into a bow to complete the sock decoration.
9. Now do the same thing with the other sock to make a pair of decorated St. Patrick's Day socks.
NOTE: If you've been careful in step 6 above, you'll be able to remove your decoration from the socks easily. Just be sure not to catch or pull any of the sock's threads when you poke the chenille through the sock cuff.
Variations:
You may have noticed that we work a lot with shrinky dinks -- mostly because they are so fun to watch shrink! This project will easily work with other materials too:
- Felt
- Paper
- Paper Clay
- Fun Foam
- Cardboard
- Cardstock
- Woodsies
- Styrofoam
- Plastics
