An Easy and Inexpensive Sit-Upon

For those of you not well-versed in Girl Scout lingo, a sit-upon is exactly what it sounds like: something to sit on to keep your rear off the damp ground.  The girls' camp packing list included "a sit-upon or stadium cushion."  Since we didn't look at the packing list until last Thursday, this was an emergency situation.  Lots of troops make sit-upons as a project, but our has not.  So, like any somewhat tech-savvy and desperate mom would do, I Googled "sit-upon" to see what came up.

As it turns out, my search turned up quite a bit.  Most sit-upon projects entailed sewing together (with yarn) two square pieces of waterproof fabric or vinyl, and filling the resulting pocket with newspaper or quilt batting.  We didn't have time to make this version.

Another project used vinyl tote bags.  Fill said tote with newspaper, glue shut with glue "dots," et voila!  A sit-upon, complete with a handy carrying handle.  As an option, you could decorate the outside with paint pens, too.

Well, I didn't have any vinyl tote bags at hand, and I didn't want to go on a wild goose chase after them, either.  I had other things to buy, like water shoes.  Glancing around the study, my eyes lit upon these large plastic square envelopes I use to store the girls' schoolwork.  Hmmm.

Off to Michael's we went.  In the scrapbooking section, we found the pockets for less than $2 each and on sale for 40 percent off.  Yippee!  In the same aisle, I found Zots glue dots for securing the pockets' flaps.  We also bought colored Sharpies to use for decorating.

At home, the girls gussied up the outside of their pockets, then we filled them with newspaper.  The newspaper sections, folded in half, fit perfectly.  They field-tested their sit-upons to make sure the newspaper was thick enough.  Since we didn't want the newspaper itself to show (and detract from their artwork), we finished with some blank newsprint packing paper, which I had on hand and cut to size.

After that, we glued the flap shut with the Zots glue dots.  I used tweezers for this, which worked well.  To make things extra secure, we glued two rows of Zots on the flaps.

Here's Tiny Girl's finished product:

These may not last quite as long as a traditional, sewn sit-upon, but they'll do for the week at camp.  Plus, they were super-easy, fast, and inexpensive.  What more could I ask for?