Michele Made Me

Amidst The Rain A Woven Sun

by

The boy and I sat at home yesterday peering out at the rain, wondering what to do with our restless little selves… Surely something could bring smiles to our faces, brighten our dampened spirits, and keep us out of certain trouble… As it turns out, the answer came to us from our dear friend the recycling bin! Surprising, yes? Well, perhaps not…
Tutorial ☀ Woven Cereal Box Sun ☀
You will need:
  • A cereal box
  • Several bits of variously coloured yarn
  • Plate or round thing to use as a template
  • Pencil
  • Ruler
  • Pair of scissors
  • Hole punch
1. Trace out your plate or chosen round thing onto the cereal box.
 
2. Cut out the circle.
3. Using a ruler and pencil, create a wagon wheel pattern on the cardboard circle. Draw a circle 1/2 inch (13 mm) from the edge of the cardboard circle. Also draw out a small circle in the center of the cardboard circle.
4. Using an exacto knife and ruler, cut slits along the spokes of your wagon wheel. When cutting your slits, do NOT pass the lines created by the drawn edge and inner circles.
5. Make a “yarn needle” by cutting out a little cereal box rectangle, rounding off one of the short ends and punching a hole into the other short end. Tie your first bit of yarn into your “yarn needle”. The bits of yarn don’t have to be very long; a couple of feet (~60 cm) will do nicely, but you can make them as long or as short as you like.
6. With the tail end of your yarn in back of your work (unlike we’ve shown here), begin weaving the yarn into your circle, in and out, in and out. The yarn needle helps make this go quite smoothly for little fingers. Go around as many times as you wish with your first colour. When you’ve gone around as many times as you like, secure the start and end of the yarn with a knot in back.
7. Continuing with the next colour, weave in and out as before, this time going over and under the opposite spokes as you would if you were weaving a basket. Repeat steps 6 and 7 until you’ve filled your circle.
8. Create a perforated line at the edge of your circle using your hole punch.
9. Stitch a piece of yarn into the perforations to finish off the piece, using the ends as a hanger.

Notes:
1. Additional steps we’d have taken to make this even better had we (um… I) been thinking clearly at the time:
Step 8 1/2. From your cereal box, cut out a second circle the same size as your original circle. With bad sides together, perforate the edge of that circle exactly to match the first. This would finish off the back quite neatly as opposed to the mess of knots we have back there as it stands. Complete step 9 as written but with the 2 pieces sandwiched bad sides together.
2. The boy really enjoyed this craft, and was very proud of his handiwork. However, he completed only half the weaving by himself before tiring. For children, I’d make the original circles significantly smaller, maybe half the size. Ours is 8″ (20 cm) in diameter.
 
3. I used orange plarn (yarn made from a plastic bag) to finish off the final bit of weaving.

The boy has claimed our creation for his room, but I think our woven sun would make a lovely Christmas ornament too, don’t you think? I’ll just have to steal it back when the time comes… ho ho ho…

Have a fantastic day now, and I’ll see you again very soon!

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Little Treasures says

    This is ingenious!! I love it, I love it, I love it!! The whole composition reminds me of Native American art – the choice of colors is fantastic – so vibrant, radiant, inspiring!! Did I tell you how much I love it??

  2. CREATIVE MIND says

    This is amazing..i love the tutorial..you are a super smart artist my dear!
    I remember when i was doing my textile designing, we learn some ribbon embroidery techniques & we use the similar technique of weaving in an embroidery stitch, the weaving method was almost the same..
    well you are awesome as always!! keep sharing great recyclingzzzzzzzz!!
    Love ~

  4. Poppyprint says

    Plarn. You kill me. Husband and I were just talking about stuff for the kids to do if it rains the entire time we are on our island holiday and this would be perfect! Now…where are all those balls of scrap yarn?

  10. Michelle L. says

    This is quite startlingly lovely, Michele! I adore the yarn needle, and I am just so taken with your sun!!! Beautiful and strange and artful!

  11. Michele Pacey says

    Pam Harris said: Brilliant! Beautiful! From one "cardboard weaver" to another – well done you! I have immediately pinned into two boards, bookmarked and will be trying one out soon!

    I may be far away from childhood, but my heart is still 10!

    Thank you so much for sharing this fabulous way to make holiday ornaments and celebrate solstices."

  12. Αναστασία says

    Είσαι φοβερή! Μου θύμισες τα παιδικά μου χρόνια που πλέκαμε κατά τον ίδιο τρόπο σε τετράγωνο χαρτί με χάρτινες χρωματιστές κορδέλες!

  14. patricia says

    Love it!! And you wouldn't believe it, but that's where I'm headed with my next set of ideas. I'm adding embroidery thread to some paper projects. Fun!!! 😉

  18. Amanda says

    This is so beautiful! makes me want to make a giant one for my living room!

    I run Fun Family Crafts, a site similar in nature to Craftgawker and Spotlight, but different in that it's a library of craft tutorials geared only at kids. I have featured your fun post here
    http://funfamilycrafts.com/woven-cereal-box-sun/

    FFC also accepts submissions! Please consider this an invitation to submit as many kid friendly craft tutorials as you like. I look forward to seeing what you submit!

    If you would like to display a featured button on your site, you can grab one from the right side bar of your post above.

  19. cformyself says

    great project! I would use those lids from the oatmeal canister.or maybe a coffee can lid. Maybe ribbon or fabric strips would make it go faster, too.