Ribbon Dancer...Totally having flashbacks...

Avery, my 2 year old daughter, is very much into swinging and banging things lately.  She likes to swing beads; she especially likes to swing them around her defenseless brother.  I decided to remedy the situation by making her a RIBBON DANCER, a toy she is allowed to swing around, that will hurt Carter less if she happens to get too close.

Materials:

12-14 inches of 3/8 wooden dowel

handsaw

small piece of sandpaper, a scrap even

painters tape

acrylic paint

sponge brush

spray acrylic sealer

thumb tack

8 inches yarn or string

about 3 feet ribbon (I think I used 1.5 or 2 inch, sorry I don't remember)

How to:

Step 1: Use the handsaw to cut off the length of dowel rod you need.  I think they usually come in 36 lengths if I remember....that seemed a little too dangerous for Avery's arm to me.  Sand the end or ends you saw because they will be a little rough.  (We don't want splinters, that'll turn playtime into a painful screaming fest quickly.)

Step 2: Paint your dowel rod your chosen color.  (I did pink because I already had some pink ribbon...orange or some bright turquoise would look GREAT.)  I applied to layers of paint.  Allow to dry in between.  If you want a solid colored rod you can skip the next step.

Step 3: Apply painter's tape to the areas that you do NOT want to be your secondary color.  (If you look close you can see the white spots where my 2 year old "helped" me with some painting while I wasn't looking.)  Paint secondary color on.  I did 2 or 3 layers here because my secondary color was lighter than my primary.  If I was thinking straight I would have switched the order of application of my colors.

Step 4: Fold over and sew down the edges of the ribbon.  I allowed a larger hem on one end for slipping a piece of yarn through for attaching to the stick.

Step 5: Slip yarn through slot and tie a knot at the end of the yarn, tying the two edges of yarn into the same knot that is.  Attach the yarn/ribbon to the dowel rod by putting a tack through the knot into the dowel rod.

VOILA!!!  RIBBON DANCER...tons of fun.

And, for some live action shots...

 PS - As a side note, I remember one specific Christmas when my cousins got ribbon dancers and I was a totally jealous 7 or 8 year old.