Nightmares Be Gone | DIY EMBROIDERY HOOP DREAMCATCHER

DIY Embroidery Hoop Dreamcatcher | Motte's Blog

What were some of your childhood nightmares?

During nap time, my biggest fear was the big, hungry crocodile living under my bed whose favorite dish just happened to be children's legs.

Because chicken legs just wouldn't do the trick. Trust me, I tried.
So to stop that next-door aquatic reptile from chomping on my lower extremities, I'd typically have to jump a mile off of my bed. Because simply stepping out of bed really wasn't an option.

Now I don't know why that would stop any (surely by now) starved carnivore from simply shooting out from under the bed in one big leap and swallowing me whole is beyond me, but I am happy to report that to date my legs are still fully intact; alive and kickin' so to speak!

Other than that I was a super easy child that fell asleep within seconds, always slept through the night and never had the urge to seek refuge in my parents' bedroom because of some brief appearance of monsters and lions and bears (oh my!) in my dreams.

Just kidding.

I was the worst. While I always enjoyed a deep slumber, it was pretty difficult getting to the point where it was enjoyable. Monsters were my constant companions in slumber land.

I'm not sure when the nightmares ended, but I do remember that I was quite old at that point.

I wouldn't be surprised if to this day my parents still had nightmares about me not letting them get a good night's sleep!...

But like any good, and thankfully crafty parent, my mom always made sure to make me feel better and eventually crafted a dreamcatcher for me so that the crocodiles (that's right, there were several at some point) would get all tangled up there, motionless and unable to snatch any human body part and drag it into their lair.

And it seemed to have worked! I haven't needed a dreamcatcher in years and am still getting enough blissful shut-eye!

But when my sister made this cute embroidery hoop dreamcatcher, I knew I had to share it.

...And couldn't help but remember some of my low points in dream land.

HERE'S WHAT YOU'LL NEED:

MATERIAL:
- embroidery fabric
- embroidery hoop
- embroidery thread
- sewing thread
- feathers
- beads
- yarn

TOOLS:
- embroidery needle
- scissors
- pins

Step 1: Mount your fabric in the embroidery hoop and tighten until firm and the fabric is in place.

Step 2: Using pins, mark the middle of the fabric. Using the center as a guide, mark the four corners of the largest possible square within the hoop.

Step 3: Using a running stitch from the center to one of the corners, form an arch with the embroidery thread.

Step 4: Lead the thread back to the center once again using the running stitch to fill the gaps between each stitch.
Repeat with all four corners until the center point is connected with each outer corner twice, an arch forming in both directions.

Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 with a second square where the corners are offset by 45 degrees.

Step 6: Once finished, wrap around the corners and anywhere two threads meet two to three times to create anchor points.

Step 7: With a plain white sewing thread, loosely straight stitch around the fabric outside of the embroidery hoop. Pull tight so that it gathers. Secure.
If necessary, add a few more stitches to keep the fabric tucked away.

Step 8: Carefully wrap a piece of yarn around the bottom end of the embroidery hoop and pull through until both ends are roughly the same length. String a few beads through the ends and insert a few feathers into the bottom end of the beads. Repeat as many times as you like.
If your beads are moving up and down the thread tie a small knot just below where the bead is meant to be placed. Add a dab of glue to the tip of the feather if you want to keep it more secured.