I made these shark crazy socks last year for my son's Silly Sock Day at school. Yes… I know that was some time ago. To be honest I'd completely forgot until his new school had their Silly Sock Day just last week. And yes, he wore them again! Which was great for me. Plus none of his new friends and teachers had seen them so he was more than happy to show them off.
Crazy socks are not something any of us really want to spend a lot of time on, right?! But of course, they still have to look amazing since your child has to try to outdo the others (my Campbell can be a little competitive sometimes!).
Since he is too young to get create something himself, I came up with these quick, no-sew crazy socks at the drop of a hat! Campbell loves sharks, so armed with my hot glue gun I set to work and got these done in no time.
If you're after some more ideas, check out my Crazy Sock roundup with 47 more sock ideas!
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SUPPLIES
- Pair of blue knee-high or football socks
- 1x red felt sheet
- 1x white felt sheet
- 1x blue felt sheet
- Scrap card
- 4 googly eyes
- Hot glue gun
- Scissors
- Pen
- Free template download
Step #1 | Create your templates
Download your template from the Freebies Library (link above). This template is US Letter. If you are printing to A4 paper, ensure your printer settings are set to “Actual Size” and not “Fit to Page”. If you have Fit to Page selected, this will scale down the size of the template shapes. Therefore the Actual Size setting will give you the accurate size needed.
Once you have your printed template, cut out the paper shapes. Place each of your paper shapes on the cardboard and trace around them. Cut out the cardboard shapes so that they are ready for your felt.
EDIT: Be sure to read the entire article for a suggestion to print straight to card stock which will save time, tracing and cutting multiple shapes.
Step #2 | Cut shark mouths from felt
Using your cardboard trace two shark mouth shapes onto the red felt. Cut these out. Easy.
Step #3 | Trace + cut out shark teeth
Still using your mouth shape, trace around the outside on your white felt. Remove the cardboard shape and draw a zig-zag pattern around the inside of the shape. You will need to be sure that you leave a space between the outline and the zig-zag (as I have done in the picture below). This allows for easy glueing. Create two sets of shark teeth.
A brief intermission to discuss the cardboard inners of your shark fins…
I used cardboard between my felt fin shapes as I wanted to make sure that they had staying power to stick out for the day. Given the fins location and the fact that legs knock together, they can get easily damaged.
I have since made this cute dinosaur spike hoodie without the cardboard inners (check out the pic below). Now whilst the felt shapes lasted just fine I think the size of them also helped with that. You could arguably skip the cardboard inners for the shark fins if you're in a rush or don't have the supplies. However, if you do, please let me know how it goes!
Step #4 | Cut out shark fins for your crazy socks
From your template, you should have two large back shark fins and four small “arm” fins. With your glue gun adhere each fin to the blue felt. Be sure to pay attention to their positioning on the felt. It is important that you leave a small amount of felt on the base edge of the fins for glueing to the socks. I left about 1cm of extra felt at the base edge.
Once you've adhered the cardboard to your felt, cut your fins out. After cutting out all of the fins, repeat to cover the other side of the cardboard – glue to the felt and cut out.
Step #5 | Assemble your crazy socks
Now that we've cut out all of the shark elements, begin by adhering the flat shapes to your socks. I just judged by eye on where the placement should start. However, you should most definitely take into consideration the shoes that your child will be wearing. And where the shoes will sit in comparison to the shark details.
With your glue gun adhere the red mouth shapes to each sock. Add the teeth cutouts over the top and then you can attach those crazy fun googly eyes.
Step #6 | Attaching shark fins to socks
Finally, in the last step, flip your socks over to attach the large back fins. Push open the extra length of felt at the base. Depending on how much room you left, if you find glueing the inside of the fins a little messy then glue two lines down the back of the socks, spread the felt and attach that way.
Once you've adhered the back fins simply do the same and glue two small fins to the sides of each sock.
All done! Finished shark crazy socks
And that's it. They're definitely crazy looking sharks with those eyes and teeth coming at you!
I mentioned an alternate option to create your fins without the cardboard inners. Now that I'm reflecting on the process another possible option would be to print your template straight to card stock. As long as your printer is capable, I would use the thickest card stock to print on. Then you could skip some of the tracing and cutting. If you attempt it, I'd love to know how it went!
Don't forget to grab your free template. I created mine on the fly but the template cutouts I made for you are the same in size, I've just perfected the shape a little better and more equally. So your crazy shark socks will look even better!
I'd love to see your silly or crazy sock creations! I'm going to need more ideas in the coming years that's for sure. As I mentioned a couple of times in the article, if you come up with a different way of creating some shark socks, I'd love to know! You can comment below or tag me in pics @avisualmerriment via Instagram or Facebook. You can also use the #avmdiy on Insta.
Other article/s you may like:
FREEBIE: Retro Gamer Printable Bingo Game
FREEBIE: 59 At Home Activities for Kids Checklist
ARTICLE: 48 of the Wackiest Crazy Sock Day Ideas
ARTICLE: How to Make an Easy Dog Man Costume
ARTICLE: A Quick Homemade Bingo Costume (from Bluey)
