In my recent post, “The History and Story of Dream Catchers” I mentioned that I was going to be making a dream catcher of my own. Well, here it is! 
I included pictures and directions as well! I think dream catchers are absolutely beautiful, creative, and fascinating. Don’t you?
Did you ever have a dreamcatcher as a kid? Or currently have one now? I did, and still do. I’ve always thought about making one myself but I never got around to it. Recently, I finally made up my mind to make one so I went searching online to learn how. This would be fun to make for yourself or even for your kids/family members to make! Enjoy I was pretty excited to make this because this is my first one ever! And it definitely won’t be the last!
What You’ll Need:
-Metal ring (the size is up to you. I used one that measured 10 inches)
-Scissors
-Glue, this is to help seal the knots so it doesn’t come undone and beads. I used a hot glue gun but another good idea is superglue. Whichever glue you use, you want it to dry fast and be clear.
-String (This is for the webbing on the inside of the ring and the bottom hanging part; you can choose any color you like)
-A few large paperclips
-Beads
-Feathers (I used two different kinds of feathers-fluffy pure white and striped patterned brown)
-Suede Lacing (Enough to tightly wrap around the metal ring)
-If you want extra things hanging on the bottom, good ideas are: lace, shells, string, beads, etc.
Directions:
*If my directions are hard to follow or you just need more visual, I also posted a few pictures to help on the bottom of this post. I will be happy to help if you have any questions as well!
1) First, get all of your materials ready. Then, begin wrapping the ring with the suede lacing. Place a paperclip on the starting end to hold it down while you continue to finish wrapping the rest of the ring.
2) To seal the two ends together, I used a hot glue gun. I glued the end pieces on the back, so that it didn’t show on the front of the dream catcher. Remember to remove the paperclip but still hold the ends together; you don’t want it unraveling. I only put enough glue to seal and hold it in place (I put a little on the sides and top of the ends). You want to use a glue that dries quickly.
3) Then, I got out the string I was using for the webbing and paper clipped one end to the top (where we just sealed the ends of the suede lacing; make sure it is firmly holding the string because it will be getting tugged and pulled on).
4) Wrap the string around the ring as shown above. The best way I can describe it is: “under-over-under-over”. You definitely do not want it as loose as the picture above, that is just to help show you how. You want to have the string a little tighter/closer to the edge of the ring. Trust me, I started over 3-4 times before I finally got it the way I wanted it lol. So don’t worry if you mess up the first time!
5) Continue to wrap the string the same exact way. You are going to do this the entire time until you get to the center. You are going to wrap the string on every straight line as shown above (where I have the scissors pointing). There are also other helpful pictures on the bottom of this page.
6) Once you get to the center and the middle opening is as small as you like, create a loop and tie a double knot. I made the knot on the back of the dream catcher. Make sure it is right against the opening because you will be cutting off the excess string and you don’t want anything hanging down. To be sure that it was secure, I placed a small, small drop of hot glue on the knot.
7) Using a piece of suede lacing, create a ‘hanger’ on the top of the dream catcher. This will go over the same place where you glued the ends of the suede lacing that you used for the metal ring.
8) It’s now time to add the hangings for the bottom of the dream catcher! I used dark brown beads, the white string that I used to make the webbing inside of the dream catcher, patterned brown feathers, and fluffy pure white feathers (to add fullness). So get out your feathers, glue, scissors, string, and either a paper plate or old newspaper so the glue doesn’t get all over the surface you are working on.
9) Measure how long you would like the bottom to be and double it; you will be looping/tying the string around the ring and it will create two sides. I did this three times as you can see: one in the middle and one on each side. I know this sounds a little confusing so I hope the pictures above help!
I first used the suede lacing but I didn’t like it. So then I used the white string instead and I liked it much better. I also started out just using the brown patterned feathers but I didn’t like that either. This is when I decided to add fluffy feathers to add fullness. That is exactly what it needed! I chose to add the pictures above to really show you exactly what I went through and had to change.
10) This is optional, but if you are using multiple colors/types of feathers like I did, you can lay them out to design a pattern for each string. This is shown above. I also took an up-close picture so you could see the patterned feathers I used.
11) Then, place one bead on each side of the string (I started on the left side) until you get it as close to the ring as you want. Then stick the feather(s) through the bead. I had to cut the excess length on the tops of the feathers a little bit to get them to fit into the beads and not stick out. Once I had the feathers placed as far as they could go (not popping out of the top of the bead though), I placed a drop of hot glue on top to seal them in.
12) Repeat the step above (Step 11) until you’re finished. Space out the beads as far as you want them (I made the mistake of putting them too close together so it was a little clumpy; I have 5 beads total on the side sections and 7 beads total on the middle section. When I was also placing the feather(s) into the beads, I always kept the feather(s) under the string that was coming through the bead. I know this sounds confusing so hopefully the picture above helps!
13) You are going to repeat the same thing for all three sections. Double check everything to make sure all feathers and beads are secure. Whatever excess string you did not use, you are now going to cut it off- which is the final step! As you can see in the picture above, I cut the excess string right where the last bead is; I cut it as close to the bottom of the bead as possible without ruining anything.
Then, you’re done! You are now able to hang up your beautiful dream catcher!
Yes, there are many other ways of making dream catchers, especially since there are other designs you could do, but this is mine. I hope my directions and pictures were clear enough to understand; if not, please feel free to leave a comment or question below and I will answer back as soon as possible! I tried my best as some things were a little hard to explain! Lol. I hope you understand!
Here are a couple helpful pictures that I mentioned in the beginning of the directions!
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