T-Shirt Tote Bags

Our most recent Maker program was one that I've had on my radar for ages now:  Making tote bags out of old t-shirts.  I'd seen versions of this project floating around Pinterest for ages and I heard a little buzz about a library or two that did this project at a conference last year, and I decided that it was finally time to give this one a go myself.

If you were to use Google or Pinterest to search for "t-shirt bags" you would easily find TONS of tutorials.  Some versions of this project are more involved than others in terms of finishing.  There is even a way to do this as a no-sew project, which is great if you do not have access to a sewing machine and don't have the ambition to do hand sewing with needle and thread.  The tutorial that I decided to use as a basis for this program was this one.  I liked that the finishing was pretty minimal, which would make the project easy for my teens and tweens to complete in a short amount of time.  But it also included one sewn seam on the bottom, which I appreciated.

In my advertising for this event I tried to make it clear that all participants needed to bring their own shirt to use for this project.  This makes the finished product much more personal for everyone, plus it saves me the trouble of needing to procure the shirts.  I sent a reminder email to everyone who had signed up out a few days before the program and asked that anyone who wouldn't be able to bring their own shirt contact me as soon as possible so that we could work something out.  No one contacted me, and everyone who attended (4 teens and 3 tweens) brought a shirt with them.

To do the project, we pretty much followed the instructions in the tutorial exactly as written.  I gave everyone a pair of scissors to cut the sleeves and neck of the shirts.  Fabric scissors definitely would have been ideal since they are sharper and easier to use on fabric, but we made do with the regular scissors that we had on hand.  Only one participant had trouble with the cutting but was able to get it done with a little help.

I brought in my own sewing machine from home and showed everyone the basics of how to use it.  Each participant was able to sit at the machine and stitch the bottom hem themselves.  I was impressed that about half of my participants had done some basic sewing on a machine before, and these people caught on especially quickly.  Even those who had never seen a machine before figured everything out pretty easily with some instruction.  Sewing a straight seam is actually not terribly difficult or time consuming even for a beginner, and it was very exciting for everyone - even those who had used a sewing machine before - to use this piece of equipment.  Because sewing one seam is pretty quick one machine was enough to go around for my small group, but someone with a much larger group might want to try to get a second machine for people to use.

As I instructed everyone, I also pointed out a few areas where a more professional seamstress might work extra hard to make the finished product really nice (sewing finishing hems along the bag's opening and handles, for example).  But we also talked about how we weren't professionals and why skipping some of these steps was okay for our purposes.  The teens and tweens seemed to think this was interesting and I'm glad that I was able to bring in this brief "real world" application to this simple DIY project.

For the most part, everyone finished their t-shirt bags in about 15 minutes.  Most of the participants used their bags to carry books home after the program.  I call that a success, and I would definitely consider running this program again in the future.

Arm Knitting

A few weeks ago we had a very successful Maker program for teens & tweens devoted to a craft that I'd been wanting to try anyway:  Arm Knitting.

The idea behind arm knitting is that it is actually exactly like regular knitting, but you use your arms as very large needles.  While this might sound a bit intimidating to someone who has never tried something like this before, it's actually pretty easy to catch on.  There are tons of videos out there on YouTube that will show you the basics, but this one is the one that I liked best:


I taught myself to do arm knitting by watching this video with some yarn in hand, and I just copied what she did.  I already knew how to do "regular" knitting with needles, so I caught on pretty quickly.  Even without this background knowledge, it's not too hard to figure out if you pay attention!

This event was hugely popular.  I had 12 teen/tween girls sign up to participate, and another two dropped in unexpectedly.  We also heard lots of comments from parents who wandered into the library and saw my sample who said that they'd love to do something like this too, so our Adult Services department will be doing a similar program in a few months.

It was a bit challenging to teach everyone how to do the arm knitting because it is a skill that is much easier to teach one-on-one than to a group.  I did have the above video playing the the background on a loop for people to watch, and I think that helped.  I circled around to show people up close what needed to be done and, if needed, actually held the kids' hands and showed them what the motions needed to be like.  This helped a few who were slower on the uptake quite a bit.  Things were a bit hectic with so many people to help, and I do wish that I had had an assistant or two to help out with the instruction.  But we made do.

Casting on was by far the most difficult part, but once that was done everyone caught on to the repetitive motions needed to knit the length of the scarf.  I did have to remind them quite frequently to pull their loops snugly around their wrists so that their stitches would not be overly large (and there were a few who ignored this advice), but otherwise there were no real snags. 

To make an arm knit infinity scarf, you will need two balls of super bulky weight yarn.  You will hold the yarn double (one strand from each ball held together) to get the thickness that you need.  Of course, you could use only one strand for a thinner scarf, or more strands for a thicker scarf.  I provided yarn for all participants, and seriously lucked out when bulky yarn went on sale at Michaels just the week before my program.  I didn't spend more than $2 on each ball of yarn, which is a steal!  If you'd like to do this program, I recommend keeping your eyes peeled well in advance for similar sales, and have a coupon ready to help minimize your costs.

This was a challenging program to pull together, but I would absolutely do it again in the future.  Everyone had a good time, and I even had the mom of one of my participants drop in and tell me that they had bought more yarn to make more scarves on their own now that they knew the technique.  Success!

Banana Keyboards

I found a half-finished version of this post saved as a draft in my blog's archives.  Oops!  I took a few minutes to finish writing and add a few pictures.  It's a bit belated, but enjoy!

This month's Maker Monday program delved a bit more into the tech than past programs as we experimented with a Makey Makey.

What is a Makey Makey?  Well, it's a nifty little device that can connect to a computer via USB.  You then can connect other objects to the Makey Makey to create your own custom keyboard using alligator clips.  Any object that conducts electricity would work fine:  Fruits, vegetables, houseplants, play-dough, other people, or even water.  Couple this with a few simple web programs that utilize the arrow keys and suddenly you can capture Pokemon with potatoes, play a tune on the piano with play-dough, win at Tetris with bananas, or drum a wicked beat on a houseplant.  The possibilities are limitless.

Jay Silver, one of the creators of the Makey Makey also gave a really awesome Ted Talk about his inspiration for the device, which I really recommend watching.  I did not show the video as part of my program due to time constraints, but it would be great to share if time allows because it helps get everyone into the proper mindset for thinking outside the box.  Enjoy it here:



I purchased a Makey Makey starter kit for $50, which comes with everything you need to get started.  You can find the kit for sale on Amazon, or you can buy directly from the Makey Makey website.  I also definitely recommend exploring the Makey Makey website to get lots of ideas for way that the device can be used.  They have links to a whole list of awesome recommended programs that work well with the Makey Makey, which is a great place to start.

Since only so many people can use the program at once, I decided to limit the size of the program to 5 people at a time with two time slots, one for teens and another for tweens.  Neither group completely filled (I had 4 teens and 2 tweens), but I was actually thankful for the small numbers as we tested what the Makey Makey could do.

On the day of the program, I set up a laptop and connected the Makey Makey.  I pre-loaded a couple of programs that I knew I wanted to try out (piano and bongos) so that they would be ready to go, and kept another tab open with the list of recommended programs to give us more options.  I set up another table with some conductive object to connect to the Makey Makey.

When the teens/tweens arrived, I have them a quick 2-minute rundown of what the Makey Makey was and how it worked.  Then I basically just let them go to town.  I let them decide which programs they wanted to test and which objects they wanted to turn into their keyboards and only offered a bit of advice and encouragement when it looked like they needed it, and occasionally challenged them to try something a little bit different or reminded them to take turns.  With such a small group, it was very easy to just let them experiment with the Makey Makey to discover what they could do with it.  As the afternoon progressed, everyone started to get even more creative and innovative as they tested the Makey Makey's limits.  It was awesome.

Check out these pictures to see some of the ways that the teens/tweens got creative with the Makey Makey.

     

   

Maker Mondays - Lava Lamps & Pet Jellyfish

This month's Maker Monday program was a combination of crafts and science as we did two hands-on projects, both involving plastic bottles and colored water.

The first project, and probably the easiest of the two, was the lava lamps.  I got the basic idea for this idea from a project I saw on Pinterest (check it out!) and many similar projects with tutorials can also be found online.  The basic idea is to fill a bottle half with water (colored with a few drops of food coloring) and half with vegetable oil (baby oil also works and is clear in color, but is more expensive).  The oil and the water will not mix no matter how much you try to stir/shake the two together because of their differing densities.  To make the lava lamps work best, I recommend filling your bottles with water first and then topping them off with oil.  If you do it the other way around, you'll need to give the bottles more time for the liquids to sort themselves out before moving on to the next step or the effect will not be very exciting.

Extra bling like glitter and sequins could be added at this point to give the lamps a bit of pizazz.  Once the bottles are prepped, the real magic begins.  Simply break an alka-seltzer tablet into pieces.  Drop a piece of the tablet into the bottle and watch the colored water bubble up through the oil.  Neat!  Our testing showed that with a one-liter bottle you could put up to half of a tablet into the bottle at once, though any more than that was overkill.

The second project was a little more involved, but the finished product was totally worth the effort.  We made jellyfish in a bottle!  Instructions for this project can be found here, but I do have a few tips for anyone who might want to give this project a try. 

• When you're cutting the plastic bag to give your jellyfish legs/tentacles, remember that you're cutting off and throwing away A LOT more plastic than you're keeping.  You really only need 15-20 super-skinny tentacles.
• Related to that:  Be sure that your tentacles are skinny, skinny, skinny!  If you're looking at your tentacles and think that you could cut them in half pretty easily, then you probably should.
• Instead of using a string to tied your jellyfish's head, we used tiny rubber bands used for hair braiding.  Seemed much easier to use and provided the needed stretch.

The finished product was super cool.  I put one of these jellyfish out as a sample, and tons of people stopped to play with it.  It helped to drum up lots of interest in the program!  I tried for ages to get a good picture, but my timing wasn't very good.  Enjoy this video instead.

I had eight participants in this program, four teens and four tweens, and they all seemed to enjoy themselves.  Part of me wishes that I would have had an assistant to help them with their projects since everyone, especially the tweens, needed a little guidance and/or reassurance that they were doing everything correctly.  But we made do, and everyone's projects turned out really well. 

The cost of this program was pretty minimal since most of the materials were easily upcycled.  Both projects required empty plastic bottles.  Fortunately, I have a friend with a crazy soda addiction who buys his soda in one-liter bottles.  He saved tons and tons of bottles for me to use for this program.  We had food coloring left over from another project, and plastic shopping bags were easy to come by.  A staff member with daughters who were totally over the hair braiding phase donated tiny rubber bands to use for the jellyfish.  The only supplies that I had to purchase was the vegetable oil and alka-seltzer for the lava lamps.

Maker Mondays - Cupcake Wars

This year I have started a series of programs for teens and tweens (grades 5+) affectionately dubbed, "Maker Mondays."  Once each month (yes, on a Monday) participants gather to do some sort of hands-on project.   Sometimes we might do craft projects, sometimes we might do something more science based.  No matter what the project may be, each month's activity is very hands-on and often requires some creativity.  I'm also trying hard to make sure that there's a component where the participants are working together and collaborating/sharing as they work.

Our first Maker Mondays program was Cupcake Wars.  This is a program that I've had on my radar for some time, and it seemed to fit in nicely with the theme.  I set out a ton of frostings and toppings, and gave each participant three cupcakes.  The teens were given three challenges for decorating their cupcakes:

1)  One cupcake could be decorated any way desired.  Anything goes!
2)  One cupcake had to be decorated to represent a book.  Any book was fine!  A book display was on hand to provide inspiration.
3)  One cupcake had to use at least one of the ingredients from the "unusual toppings" table.

I decided not to do any actual voting or judging to declare a winner, though I did ask all participants to take turns showing their cupcakes to the group and talking about their inspirations and what ingredients they chose to use.  At the end the kids were allowed to eat their cupcakes and/or take them home.
 

Food-based programs are always hugely popular, and this one was no exception with 16 total participants.  Everyone seemed to have a great time, and it didn't even take too much cajoling to get the teens to share their creations. 

It's a good thing that food-based programs are so popular, because they unfortunately are always a tad expensive.  Let's face it, junk food and candy aren't cheap! 

To save a bit on money, I bought boxed cake mix and made my own cupcakes to use in this program.  This saved us a ton of money compared to the cost of purchasing cupcakes from a bakery, but required a bit more time and effort on my end.  I also suggest that other librarians looking to do this program double check their library's rules regarding serving food before making their own cupcakes to be sure that your policies allow for this.

I purchased several different types of canned frosting for the teens/tweens to use.  I also provided a few containers of easy-squeeze decorating icing.

Toppings for the cupcakes were easily the largest expense.  To put this program together, I suggest first raiding your own cupboards at home to see if there is anything that you can spare a small amount of.  There were tons of leftovers since we really only needed a very small amount of each topping, but we did want to have a wide variety of toppings to choose from.  Many of the leftovers were saved to be used as snacks for upcoming programs.

Some of the toppings that I made available included:

• Oreo Cookies
• Chocolate Chips
• Butterscotch Chips
• Raspberries
• Blueberries
• Sweedish Fish
• M&Ms
• Pixie Stix
• Snickers Bars
• Reece's Peanut Butter Cups
• Pretzels
• Graham Crackers
• Marshmallows
• Peanuts
• Trail Mix

I also had a table full of "unusual toppings" that you might not normally think to include on a cupcake.  The teens were allowed to use toppings from this table at any time, but were required to use at least one of these for one of their cupcakes:

• Flavor-Blasted Goldfish
• Chex Mix
• Corn Chips
• Sun-Dried Tomatoes
• Crispy Pepper Chips
• Beef Jerkey
• Olives
• Jalapenos
• Shredded Cheddar Cheese