🎓 Skills Your Child Will Develop

• 🌿 Sensory Exploration — Handling varied craft materials — soft fabric, rough sandpaper, smooth clay, scratchy burlap — builds sensory discrimination and supports the processing skills that some children need additional practice with.
• 🏆 Pride & Accomplishment — Completing a craft and displaying or giving it away gives children a concrete experience of accomplishment — building the relationship between effort, completion, and pride that motivates future creative risk-taking.
• ♻️ Environmental Thinking — Using natural or recycled materials in crafts begins to develop awareness that materials have a life beyond their original use — an early foundation for environmental stewardship and sustainable thinking.
• 👁️ Hand-Eye Coordination — Guiding scissors along a line, placing stickers exactly, and painting within a space all require the visual-motor integration that handwriting, sports, and detailed work depend on.

The Pillowcase Trick-or-Treat Bag Preschool Halloween Craft is made from a used pillow case and half-inch cotton cord such as you would buy in a fabric store. It’s best to use a pillowcase that is one solid color. Even when it’s dyed, the pattern will tend to show through. The Pillowcase Trick-or-treak bag is deep and has a drawstring closure so treats are less likely to spill as your preschooler goes door-to-door.

Materials You Will Need

1 pillowcase, a light, solid color, freshly washed and dried without fabric softener
½-inch cotton cord, enough to make a drawstring that doubles as shoulder straps
Orange dye
Green dye
Scissors
Fabric glue
Large safety pin
Halloween stamps
Florescent paint
Paper towels folded into a pad

How to Make it

Step 1:
Using dye you buy at a store, dye the pillowcase orange. You and your preschooler should both wear plastic gloves and do this in a plastic tub or bowl that you do not mind staining. Follow the instructions on the package.

Step 2:
Dye the cord green the same way you did the pillow case. Let both dry completely. Do not use your clothes dryer. You risk getting dye on whatever clothing you dry afterward.

Step 3:
The open end of the pillowcase will have a large hem. On each side of the inside, right at the side seams, make a hole big enough to slip the cord through.

Step 4:
Fold over the raw edges where the pillowcase was cut and glue them down with fabric glue, being careful not to glue the hem shut. This prevents unraveling.

Step 5:
Attach a very large safety pin to the end of the cord and run it through the hem all the way around the pillowcase. Tie the ends together.

Step 6:
Pour the paint or paints into shallow dishes such as saucers or coffee can lids. Remove excess paint by lightly stamping the paper towel pad first. Stamp the Halloween designs onto the bag and let the paint dry.

Step 7:
Try the bag on your preschooler by hanging it from his shoulders like a backpack. If it hangs too low, shorten the cord.

Alternative Methods and Materials for Making the Preschool Trick or Treat bag

Method 1:
If you don’t have an old pillowcase or don’t care to use one, try using a white canvas drawstring backpack instead. Proceed as you would with the pillowcase.

Method 2:
If you cannot find Halloween stamps, some Halloween cookie cutters can function as stamps or they can be laid on the bag and traced with fabric markers.

Method 3:
Glue on pre-cut Halloween shapes instead of stamping. They are available in craft stores.

Method 4:
If time is short, use a pre-made orange drawstring backpack and Halloween stickers.

Helpful Tip for parents

Pillowcases that are a dark or bright color may not turn out orange when dyed. It’s best not to use them, but if you choose to, use a commercial dye remover from the craft store to remove the color first.

 

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I'm Margaret Studer, the Preschool Crafts writer for PreschoolRock.com. In addition to crafts, I enjoy writing, children, cooking, and cats. I love to hear from my readers, so please share your preschool craft ideas with me. If you have any suggestions, ideas, or questions about this site, please contact me.

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