DIY Ninja Turtles Masks

Go ninja, go ninja, go! Sorry, I couldn't help myself! I've had that song stuck in my head all afternoon and it certainly doesn't help that I've been in Ninja Turtle mode this week.

My not so little guy turns 7 this week, I cant believe it! His one request for his birthday...Ninja Turtles. So being the hip mom that I am I decided to throw together a small Turtles themed birthday party for him. Nothing fancy and over the top those just stress me out. I was once the mom that threw over the top parties and let me tell you while they were fantastic parties I have learned that simple is best. Especially since we have back to back kid birthdays in this house, and at the end of the day all they really care about is running around like crazy with their friends and how much sugar they can consume in one day.

Now if you grew up in the 90's you were probably just as much in love with the Ninja Turtles as my little guy is. It's so much fun watching him enjoy the same things I did during my childhood. If only my brother had kept all those Ninja Turtle figurines, he would be uncle of the year in E's book. Of course they brought back a new line of figurines and E is lucky enough to have most of them.

After a little bit of party planning I decided masks were a must have. I browsed around the party store and they did have some, but they just didn't fit what I was looking for. Then it hit me, I could make my own masks and they would be just as cheap as buying the party store masks. I used tshirts instead of buying fabric from the fabric store to keep costs down. Everything else I had on hand, so in total these masks ended up costing me a little over $4. They are super easy to make and if you are a beginner at sewing this project is perfect for your since it's nothing but sewing a straight line and trust me it doesn't have to be perfect.

 I can't wait to surprise E with these at his party, and to add a finished touch I ordered each party guest an awesome wearable turtle shell! I figured instead of hitting up the dollar section for favor bags I would splurge a little and have the mask and turtle shell be the party favors. I'm thinking it will be a hit!

Materials Needed:

• XL Tshirts in Ninja Turtle colors (Purple, orange, blue, red) I purchased mine at Michaels
• Sewing Machine 
• Iron and ironing board
• sewing guage
• sewing pins 

Directions:

 After you have washed the tshirts cut and measure your material. You want to measure 3 1/2 inches up from the bottom seam of the shirt. Do not cut below the shirts bottom seam, you want to use it since it will make for less sewing in the end.

 

  After you have have cut your pieces, cut where one of the folds meet (aka the side of the tshirt) to make it into one long strip of fabric.

Iron the strips of fabic, once they are all ironed take your sewing gauge and measure 1/2 in hem line. Fold over the hem line and pin. You will only need to do this to one side of the fabric length wise since we saved the original shirt seam.

Once your hem line is pinned sew it in place

Press your hem line for a crisp look and repeat the same steps on the ends of the masks and sew the ends as well. After you have finished sewing your hem lines, fold your mask in half to find the middle. Once you find the middle of the mask trace and cut out the eye holes.

I just used my thread spool cap since it was the perfect size. If you want to be extra fancy use a coordinating thread color but since I didn't have purple thread on hand and I was too lazy to switch out bobbins I used white thread for all of the masks.

                              Here's C modeling her new mask for me, she gives it a thumbs up.