Taekwondo is a really big deal in our house and has been for the last four years ever since Buddy saw a class through a window and was instantly hooked. If you ask me about what Taekwondo means to Buddy I will probably cry. It’s not something I talk about online, but he struggles with severe often crippling anxiety, and out of all the things we have done to help him, Taekwondo has done the most. It’s a combination of the philosophy behind the art as well as amazing mentoring instructors, and I can’t recommend this incredible martial art enough. His strong desire to practice this martial art motivated him to overcome so many personal fears and challenges and I am beyond incredibly proud of him. He loves it so much that after watching him train for two years, his sisters fell in love with Taekwondo too and it’s such a joy (and dare i say adorable?) to watch all three training together! Being able to break boards with your kicks is an integral part of the journey and a skill you need in order to progress to senior belts. With three kids practicing we decided to get a kickboxing bag that all of our kids could use to train and develop strength in their kicks. And guess what you fill kickboxing bags with – FABRIC SCRAPS! And guess what I have coming out of my ears – FABRIC SCRAPS! So today is the story of filling a kickboxing bag with fabric scraps I’ve been hoarding for much too long!
Behold. The giant mound of fabric scraps i had hoarded like an insane person in my sewing cupboard because I felt too guilty to throw them in the bin. If you have eagle eyes you can probably spot scraps from heaps of projects I’ve shared on this blog! When Chris went to buy a kickboxing bag for the kids at the martial arts store the very nice sales assistant started giving him some info on how he could source fabric scraps to stuff the bag with. Chris just laughed, and said mate i have it covered.
Unfortunately finding a use for this hoard of scraps now makes me feel justified in keeping them…
Just a quick shot to show you what it looks like when you purchase a kickboxing bag. Flat and sad. So hungry for fabric scraps ;)
This is the exact bag we bought here in Australia, but I also found this one on Amazon that I believe is the same one.
The method is simple, you cut all your fabric scraps into small pieces and stick them in till its full. You then need to hang it for a period of time and kick it a lot to let the fabric settle and compact. At that point the top will look a bit deflated and empty. You’ll cut more fabric scraps and stick them in, and repeat the process. For us this happened organically over a period of months until our bag was full and nice and compacted. Conveniently the rate of filling lined up nicely with sewing scrap creation rate.
It’s really important that you do cut up your fabric into small pieces otherwise they don’t conform well to the bag and create really horrible lumps that hurt and also can result in the bag tearing.
All the kids helped with this project which was really great because they are the ones using it! Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos of Buddy because he was incredibly camera shy on this day and i believe in respecting that.
You’ll probably also notice that the girls look quite a bit younger in these photos than they are now… and that’s because i took these photos 2 years ago! I must confess I was sitting on them so long because i was really hoping to get a photo of all three of them being adorable in their uniforms using it, but no-one except me wanted that, and like I said it’s important to respect your kids wishes when it comes to photographs shared on the internet :) Though the blogger in me still really wishes i could have that shot! No Meg. Stop it ;)
I will also add that we have a number of kick bags and hand mits that are specifically made for Taekwondo, but they require a person to hold them, and honestly Buddy likes to practice till he almost passes out with exhaustion so it wasn’t working for us to hold them all the time and the kids don’t enjoy holding them for each other. A kickboxing bag was a great solution for us because we can hang it on our monkey bars in the backyard (we have this Funky Monkey set and they are incredible, highly recommend!). Usually, we hang it up at least once a week and all three kids use it to practice their kicks. It’s so cute and has helped so much! Buddy can break a board with ease doing a number of kicks now, and Bunny is well on her way.
I hope you enjoying reading about how I used my fabric scraps to fill my kids kickboxing bag! After this project I felt like an incredible legend for using up all my fabric scraps in one big project. And then i proceeded to make more scraps ;)
If you’re looking for more projects that use up fabric scraps can i recommend my tutorials for making fabric scrap baskets or braided fabric scrap rugs.
