Craft Project: Princess Sash

Inspiration: I wanted a craft for my daughter's Princess themed birthday party but since we had already purchased tiaras from Oriental Trading, I had to come up with something else. I had originally thought to do sashes with materials but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that the paint could stain and would take too long to dry. My husband mentioned making paper sashes at school as a kid, so we gave it a try one day with our daughter and liked how they came out.

How We Made Them:  Before the party, I used a large roll of white butcher-style art paper to cut long strips (folded over once to make them a little thicker).  I took two strips and angled the ends together so they overlapped with a diamond shape.  I stapled the diamond together and used white mailing labels to cover both sides of the staples (so they wouldn't pull on anyone's clothing).  I folded creases around the top to help when we put them on the girls and labeled the bottom of the creased area "Rt" to remind me that they go on the kids right shoulder.  On the side that would be the front, I used a black Sharpie to draw a crown and then wrote each girl's name in large block letters (the example in the photo was without a name).


Closed up of the finished top.


The sash before coloring.

During the party, we had crayons and stickers out for the girls to decorate them.   When they finished, we put them over their right shoulder and held the lengths together near their left hip and then stapled the paper together with 2 staples (if we needed to we covered the staples with white mailing labels).

Alternatives:

• I would have liked to have time to trim the length down for each girl and maybe cut in a V to make the ends look more like ribbons.
• I've seen some websites where kids make them with brown paper bags and then design "badge" stickers like a Girl Scout Brownies sash.
• This idea would also work for a pageant themed party.