Dreamcatcher DIY – Thanksgiving Craft

I had our monthly Girl Scout Meeting this  past weekend and I wanted to do something sort of Thanksgiving themed.  All of the Thanksgiving crafts I found were a little immature for ten year olds, so I settled on these adorable Native American Inspired Dream Catchers.  They satisfied my self imposed Girl Scout craft rules because they were inexpensive to make, they weren’t messy and they took more than 20 minutes to make.

Dream Catcher 1

That’s the one I made as an example for the girls.  I didn’t document the process with pictures, but it’s pretty simple to make.  Heres’s a quick how to.

Supplies

  • Embroidery Hoop
  • A few different colors of yarn
  • Beads
  • Feathers

Step 1

Unscrew the embroidery hoop so that you have two separate hoops.  You are going to make the crisscrossy yarn part on the smaller, inner part of the embroidery hoop.  To make the crisscrossy yarn part, cut about 24 inches or so of yarn and tie one end on to the hoop.  Begin crisscrossing the yarn randomly, or in a pattern.  You can repeat this step with second or third color of yarn. When you are happy with the amount of crisscrossing you have done, tie the yarn off onto the hoop.

Step 2

Reassemble the embroidery hoop and tighten up the screw at the top.  This will help keep your yarn in place.  At the bottom of the hoop (the bottom is at the opposite end of the clasp), you will now attach varying lengths of yarn. I chose to do three vertically hanging lengths of yarn, but you could do more; your choice.

Step 3

Decorate the vertically hanging yarn.  String beads on the yarn.  If your yarn is separating and not cooperating, wrap a little Scotch tape around the end before you string it through the beads.  I attached feathers to the dream catcher by simply feeding them into the beads.  You may choose to add some glue to the feathers, but my beads were small enough that the feathers fit pretty snugly.  I also added some tassles in a couple of spots.  Tassles are really easy and really fun to make.  I’ll warn you now, you will be adding tassles to EV.ERY.THING.  To make a tassle, wrap yarn around four of your fingers, about 30-50 times, depending on how fluffy you want your tassle. Take a 4 inch piece of yarn and tie it close to the top of the loops of yarn.  Snip the long end of the yarn and boom, tassle!  It’s a lot like making a pom pom, except you tie off the yarn close to the top of the loops instead of the middle and then you only cut one end.  Click here for detailed instructions on how to make a pom pom with pictures.  You can tie the tassles onto your dream catcher with the leftover yarn from tying off the top of the yarn loop.

And that’s it!  Unless you want to embellish with more doo dads.

I want to share one of the dream catchers that one of my Girl Scouts made. I love it because even though she had the same instructions and materials as the other girls, hers came out really unique.  And that is why I love crafting.

Dream Catcher 2

 

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