The softball season closed out for the girls with a Nationals tournament. These tournaments are more like a regional tournament, where some do come from states away. Fortunately for us, it was just a half hour away.
During their first game of pool play, the teams exchange gifts. I made a few things for the gift bags, and also to give to the girls on our team. I also wanted to make the team some water bottles, since I had purchased a bunch at once.
I purchased the water bottles at Save A Cup for $4.48/each. I was looking for a durable PBA free bottle that wouldn’t have pieces that would mold (like a plastic spout or straw). These work pretty well. The vinyl I purchased from Expressions Vinyl. I copied a couple of images I found on the internet, and put them together for the bottle art (I won’t be sharing the cut file, since I didn’t make the art). The names were from one of the fonts in the Silhouette design software (Cricut mats are cheaper, so I use those instead of the Silhouette mats).
When using this vinyl you need transfer paper. Just an FYI if you have never cut regular vinyl before. You weed it, and then put the transfer paper over the top. You then rub it onto the surface. I have a bunch of those little brown Pampered Chef nylon scrapers. They work great for this job.
Next, the girls all trade these nice metal pins with their team on them. The goal is to get unique ones, and ones from far away. They need something to put them on, so we decided on lanyards this year. I purchased 25 yards of each of these softball ribbon prints off of Amazon and a bag of clips and went to work! I cut each one at about a yard, and heat sealed the ends before sewing them together.
Lastly, I made scrunchies for the girls hair. This is the softball fabric I purchased from RP Custom Fabrics.
I cut them at 14″ x 3″. I basically tried to make long tubes first and then cut them to length. The elastic was 6″ long. Here is how I made them:
- Cut tubes of elastic and serge the long edge.
- Flip right side out.
- Insert elastic in one end and sew it to the raw edge on one side.
- Pull it the rest of the way through, and sew it to the raw edge of the other side of the elastic to create a circle. Make sure the elastic isn’t twisted before sewing together.
- Fold the edge of the fabric under, put over the raw edges and topstitch.
I figured making it this way would make sure the elastic didn’t come undone. It was a lot of steps for such a little thing, but I think they turned out well.
The tournament was fun and the girls made it into bracket play for the Silver bracket. They lasted until mid-day Saturday (started on Thursday), and had a great time!
And she’s out!
This was an all around awesome project! Great use of your precious custom fabric scraps too.
Thanks Abbey! The girls loved the bottles, scrunchies and lanyards, and I love making things for them. It was fun watching the girls from the other team get their bag of goodies, too. They work so hard to win a tournament to get there, so it is nice to get some fun things when they get there.