FROM TRASH TO BOAT

We are getting ready for a seaside summer vacation and I decided to make a craft with Little Pilot to get him into the seaside mood...

It's a little sailboat made mostly out of upcycled materials.  I am sure that I saw this craft on pinterest or something, but for the life of me could not find where it was from.  All I could remember was that someone, somewhere duct taped some water bottles to a board to make a boat.  So I had to come up with my own way of making it.

Here are the materials I used (I ended up not needing the wire - see below):  

• one 8.5" square piece of cardboard (mine was from a diaper box)
• two empty plastic water bottles
• a pair of chopsticks (mine were leftover from our sushi takeout)
• scrap piece of fabric & coordinating thread
• colourful duct tape (these were from the Dollar Spot at Target)
• kitchen twine
• I have wire below, but didn't end up needing it in the end

Here's how I made the boat with Little Pilot:

The Platform:  I wrapped the cardboard in duct tape.  On the ends I used one piece folded over the edge to completely seal the edge.  Then I wrapped the tape in strips all the way around leaving my tape seams on the underside.  For the mast I poked a hole through the centre and put one chopstick through it (the wider end created a nice stopper).

Floats:  Attach the empty water bottles to bottom of your platform with duct tape.

The Sail:  

1. Place your chopsticks together in a cross.  This is where I used the wire, but realized I didn't need it after I sewed my sail.  Use the chopstick mast as a guide to cut out your sail (a triangle).  Leave enough of a seam allowance to allow you to make a pocket for the chopstick to go through.
2. Sew the edges:  Hem the long edge (no chopstick will go there).  Sew two pocket hems for the other two edges for the chopsticks to go through.
3. cut slits in your pocket hems to allow the chopsticks to go through (see the photo below).  This is where I noticed that the sail was taut enough to keep the chopsticks in place without the wire!

You will have to take the sail off the chopstick mast in order to poke the chopstick mast through your hole in the platform.  I also added a little kitchen twine to the other side that I just knotted on.

This was one of the most fun crafts that I have made with Little Pilot.  He was SO excited!  He was able to help a little with the assembly part and watched carefully while I did the more tricky parts.  I also loved that this craft was made using what I had on hand.  The duct tape would be the only thing you may need to purchase.

Here are some pictures of the boat in action in Little Pilot's baby whale pool.  We had a crab as a passenger.  The crab kept falling over and Little Pilot kept standing it back up. :)  The duct tape worked well at keeping the cardboard dry too.

If you know Little Pilot you probably already guessed that the sailing ended like this:

I actually took these pictures the second time he dove in the water.  The first time I started to laugh and as we were heading inside he turned back and took another dive to amuse his mommy some more.  Gotta love our little comedian!

Overall, loved how this craft turned out and how excited Little Pilot was about it.  We'll see if the boat survives long enough to make it with us on our trip!

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