I adore Dreamcatchers, and have admired them for years. Alas they are an expensive item if purchased, even when made by a local artisan. But you can make one yourself, with a few scraps of this and that, and an hour or so of your time.
I made this gorgeous one in neutral tones, for a birthday gift for one of my daughters friends. It was ooh-ed and ahh-ed over and now everyone wants one!
A Dreamcatcher this size with the added details of the shabby rosettes would sell at our Arty Markets for around $75-$95, and cost us about $10 to make. Granted we were using scraps already on hand, but if you had to buy everything you needed, you'd still spend under $20, and you'd have enough for at least 3 Dreamcatchers.
You'll need:
1. Bamboo hoop, any size. Try to keep the scale of your hoop and doiley similar. A tiny doiley in the middle of a huge hoop won't look right. The doiley needs to be centred, but with some space around it to leave room to stretch it tight. The hoops are available at Haberdashery, Craft and Embroidery suppliers and are very inexpensive. They are usually with the floristry supplies and silk flowers, as they're commonly used for wreaths and flowergirl hoops.
2. Lace Doiley...mine was from a thrift store and was just -20c. You can also buy them in the Discount and Dime stores in packs of 5 or 6 in varying sizes, for around $3, so either way, they're not expensive either. Imagine using vintage doileys...how pretty!
3. Wool, ribbon and lace in toning colours for the streamers. You'll also use this to tie the doiley to the hoop.
4. Scraps of fabric in three toning colours or prints to make the Shabby Rosettes.
5. Needle and thread.
6. Hessian tape and pen for the sweet little 'Be Brave Little One' tag, if you want one.
Start by laying your hoop on your work surface (I sat on the floor), and centering the doiley. Thread twine, yarn, ribbon or lace through as many strategic points on the doiley as possible. The more anchors you have, the more stable and strong, your Dreamcatcher will be. I used toning yarn to anchor mine, and threaded it through each 'point' on my doiley.
Start tying your points off, knotting each one securely. You must alternate sides when doing this to ensure your doiley is centred. So imagine your Dreamcatcher as a clock face. Start at 12 o'clock, tie it off, then drop down to 6 o'clock and anchor that point. Then move to 9 o'clock, then to 3 o'clock. 11 and 5 o'clock, 1 and 7 o'clock, 10 and 4 o'clock, and so on.
By the end, you should have securely anchored doiley, centred and tight as a drum.
Trim all the trailing ends from your knots.
Now start cutting generous lengths of ribbon, yarn, twine and/or lace for your streamers. You'll be folding them in half to attach them, so make them twice as long as you'd like the finished streamer to be. Fold each in half and start attaching them by folding the loop over the bottom edge of your hoop, and threading the tails through the loop.
Pull on the tails gently, but firmly to lock your streamers into place.
Continue adding streamers, using as many textures as possible. You can use scraps of fabric too, but we had all of this yarn and lace leftover from the Victoriana Ghosts costumes I made, so we were thrilled to be able to use it all up! I love the softer tone on tone look, but of course you can make yours as bright and bold as you want.
As you can see, we used feather yarn, bulky yarn, lace, and ribbon. The feather yarn is particularly pretty used on this project as it has a lovely pearly finish.
Look how gorgeous it is with the sunlight shining through!
Now is the time to trim the ends of the tails if you want to. We left ours uneven and shabby looking, but you can trim them straight, or into a triangle point if you prefer.
These rosettes were another item left over from the costumes I made, so joy of joys...a way to use them up as well! If you'd like to make some of your own, I'll be providing a tutorial for them later this week. They are very simple, I promise!
I like to press these flat to give them a worn, and shabby look, so I dampen a teatowel, fold it in half lengthwise, and enclose the fabric rosettes in between the two damp layers. I then press them on the highest temperature for about 60 seconds to flatten them well. You can skip this step if you want a fuller looking rosette.
Next I folded the hessian tape in half, forming a V shape, and wrote my message on the two V tails.
I arranged the rosettes and tag where I liked them best, and pinned them into place.
Then I hand stitched them, ensuring that I was catching some of the doiley behind them. You only need a couple of stitches. This is not an item that will be handled very often.
All done, and I was very happy with the result!
A few of these would make lovely Christmas gifts, and cost next to nothing to create. You can personalise them in all kinds of ways, attach things to the doiley, vary the colour combinations, and make different sizes. You can even leave the doiley out altogether, and weave a shape with yarn in the middle. I've also seen them empty in the middle, but then they're not really a 'dreamcatcher' are they? There's nowhere for the 'dreams' to 'catch'! They still look pretty though, so you're only limited by your imagination.
I'll be making some more masculine ones soon, using darker, neutral colours, and more rustic looking tree branches. I'll share those when they're done.
I'll be making some more masculine ones soon, using darker, neutral colours, and more rustic looking tree branches. I'll share those when they're done.
They're also a popular Wedding decoration at the moment, and I can just envisage a series of these as ceremony and reception decorations at a Boho wedding. Stunning!
What do you think?
Will you try making your own Dreamcatcher?
