Family Fun: A Foam Dart DIY - MetroFamily Magazine
MetroFamily Magazine

Where OKC parents find fun & resources

Family Fun: A Foam Dart DIY

by Emery Clark

Reading Time: 3 minutes 

My oldest son and his friends have become quite obsessed with foam dart guns lately. Much of their free time is now spent running around the park, dodging and weaving behind the trees, firing squishy Nerf missiles at each other, and shouting epic battle plans into their walkie-talkies. The mother in me is rejoicing over this new found hobby for two reasons. One, they are OUTSIDE. That is where all of the fresh air is! And, two, I would much rather step on foam darts that are strewn all over the floor in the middle of the night than on a pile of treacherous Legos. It’s like getting to step on marshmallows after years of being forced to step on harpoons! My feet are rejoicing.

Ezra’s best buddy came up with the idea of having some sort of belt and bandolier combo that would allow them to take their arsenal of foam with them wherever they went, because what tween boy wants to be found without the proper supplies when he is trapped on top of the play structure in the heat of the battle? In those harrowing moments, every single dart counts!

If you’ve got a son or daughter who has been bitten by the ‘Nerf bug’, I’d love to share this quick and easy DIY we pieced together with you! I am not a very naturally crafty person, so our final result was by no means perfect, but it gets the job done and it was easy as pie to make! 

What You’ll Need:

  • 1 1/2 inch thick elastic
  • cloth belt or Nylon strap material
  • adhesive velcro tabs
  • 1 or 2 carabiners (metal clips)
  • sewing machine

We had a cloth belt sitting around from Ezra’s old karate days, so I made the belt and bandolier out of that. Some nylon or cotton webbing material would work great as well! I added a velcro closure to the belt portion so that we could adjust the size as needed, but I just sewed the remaining fabric into a loop for the bandolier, so he could just slip it over his head easily. 

On the belt we added some velcro tabs to hold his small gun and his paper ninja stars. I also sewed two loops of elastic onto the back sides of the belt to hold his larger gun clips.

For the bandolier, I started at the top, and literally just looped the elastic over a foam bullet and sewed the elastic down next to it, and repeated that all the way down. You could add as many loops of whatever sizes you need, front and back! 

The last touch was clipping some extra guns on with some carabiners I found at the grocery store for 50 cents a piece. The whole project cost less than $10, but the very best part was that my son and I had a BLAST designing and making his one-of-a-kind tactical gear. In fact, I’m thinking his brothers might need their own set now… and who knows? Maybe I need to make a couple of adult sized ones too? I’m thinking Summer family nights running around in the park shooting foam darts and laughing with each other sounds pretty much… like perfection.

 
   

more stories