Dream Catcher

A Dream Catcher is an old Native American symbol.  Storytellers speak of the Spider Woman, known as Asibikaashi; she took care of the children and the people on the land. Eventually, the Ojibwe Nation spread to the corners of North America and it became difficult for Asibikaashi to reach all the children. So the mothers and grandmothers would weave magical webs for the children, using willow hoops and sinew. The dreamcatchers would filter out all bad dreams and only allow good thoughts to enter our mind. Once the sun rises, all bad dreams just disappear. The Ojibwe believe that a dreamcatcher changes a person’s dreams.  Only good dreams would be allowed to filter through.   Bad dreams would stay in the net, disappearing with the light of day and good dreams would pass through and slide down the feathers to the sleeper.

My little sister wanted to to make a dream catcher for her new place.   It was her first time living alone and she liked the protective elements behind the symbol.   She is 15 years younger and a really cool free spirit.  (She would have made a great hippie.)  Naturally being the crafty sister I was ready for our dream catcher making.  We each gather bits and pieces from my stash and we both picked bottles of dyes to work with.

Materials and tools for dream catcher:

• Embroidery hoop
• Scissors
• Cotton twine
• Lace doily
• Fabric Dye
• zip top bag or mason jar
• microwave
• Adtech Hot glue Gun and glue sticks

Instructions for dream catcher:

Misc items such as beads, feathers and things you find in nature, ribbon, old fabric or things you find in your stash.

1. Wrap the hoop with strips of fabric.  Secure the first piece with a small dollop of glue.  I chose to use a half hitch knot around the edges of mine.  Once you have wrapped the hoop, secure the end with more glue. (I used old pillow case for the strips) We dyed them before using them.
   
2.  Take a long piece of twine  and tie it onto the edge of your hoop. Secure the knot with a little glue. Every  inch and a half on the hoop, wrap the twine over the hoop. Put the twine between the loop you’ve made and the hoop. This is called a hitch.
3.  An inch and a half away make another hitch to the hoop, just like the one before.  This is the same hitch for your entire dream catcher.  Once you have gone completely around the hoop you will start on row two.  The next hitch is made at the midpoint of the first loop. Repeat and keep slightly taught.
4. If the beads you’d like to use fit onto your twine add them wherever you like in between hitches.
   
5. Continue around the web tying a hitch and pulling tighter on each row until you are down to a small center hole in your web. At the point you want to quit your web, tie a double half hitch knot over the middle of the next section in the web and pull tightly. Secure with a dot of glue. 
   
6. To make the dyed doily, mix fabric dye and water in a zip top bag.   Add the doily and let it soak for a few minutes.  Then take the doily out of the bag and place in another zip top bag and microwave for 30 seconds and then again for 30 seconds.  Watch carefully and have an adult supervise.  Remove from microwave and rinse thoroughly.  Allow to dry and glue to the center of the dream catcher.
7.   I sprayed my dream catcher with different colors of fabric dye to create more depth.
8.  Embellish the center with buttons or other objects that you like.  I used a wood button and beads to form a turtle.  Turtles are peaceful and serene, how I want my dreams to be.
9.  To embellish the bottom tie ribbons, strings and other found objects.  Secure them with a little glue.

Attach a final loop to the top of your dream catcher so you can hang it above your bed.

Have sweet dreams!