AnchorMommy

DIY child’s art smock

June 22, 2009 by Shannon

Have an old long-sleeved T-shirt lying around? In two minutes’ time you can turn it into a custom fit child’s art smock, and save yourself plenty of laundry headaches.

Any T-shirt would probably work for this project, but I like using a long sleeved one because the arms can be used as ties to keep the smock well-fitted to the kid. Here’s what you need:

• Large or medium long-sleeved shirt
• Scissors
• Marker (optional)

1. Put the shirt on the child and pull it back at the neck so that you can’t see his or her clothing through the neckhole. It’s okay if the neck drapes open a little in back.
2. Here, you have two options, depending on how wiggly the kid is. Grab a bit of the T-shirt at the child’s shoulder blade, pull it away from the body and use scissors to make a small, half inch snip in the fabric. If your child won’t stand still, use the same method but make a dot on the shirt with a marker, remove it from the kiddo and give it a snip.
   
3. With the shirt on the child, wedge your fingers into the cut fabric and pull it apart gently to make a hole. The whole should be wide enough for their arm to fit through comfortably. (If you need to, take a look at one of their own T-shirts as a guide.) Once each arm is through the opening, pull the sleeves of the shirt back and tie.

I like the fact that this smock covers Kellan’s clothes, top to bottom (of course, it would not protect the arms of a child’s long sleeved shirt), but leaves his arms free of fabric. He can get good and messy, and I know the cleanup for me will be minimal. As long as he doesn’t decide to fling paint on the wall.