Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Boho Macrame Feather DIY

It's time for the July Pinterest Challenge Blog Hop, hosted by Erlene @My Pinterventures! The purpose of the Pinterest Challenge is to motivate us to not just pin, but to make it happen! This month's challenge is a choice of our own project!

I don't know about you, but I love the boho look of macrame feathers! The knot tying technique is one that you can apply to lots of decorative items like wall hangings, pendants, earrings, key chains, garlands and even wreaths! All giving off cool boho vibes! There are lots of tutorials on how to make macrame feathers on Pinterest, but I was quite intrigued to make one with the very first macrame feather diy I found here.

To start, cut a 36" length of yarn for the feather stem . . . there are a variety of yarns, cords and ropes in different sizes and widths that can be used to make this type of macrame feather - mostly in natural or off white colors. I wanted to make a colorful one, so I'm using a yarn that I already had on hand.

Fold the strand in half together and place on your work surface with the loop at the top. Then take a seat in front of a good movie on tv or listen to music and start cutting about 102 shorter pieces of yarn, 15" long. This project is quite time consuming!

Once all the strands of yarn are cut, take two 15" strands together and fold in half evenly and place under the stem - with the loops facing to the right. Since the yarn is rather thin, I'm using two strands together each time for a fuller look.

Next, take two more strands, fold together and insert the loops through the first loops, pulling it through and over the stem.

Then lift up the ends of the first strands pulling them through the loops of the second strands . . .

pulling the ends in opposite directions to form your first slip knot. Looking at the knot, the loop is on the right side.

Next, repeat the steps for making the knot, only the strands will be alternated with the first loop under the stem facing to the left. In other words, take two strands together, fold and place under the stem with the loops facing to the left. Then fold strands evenly together and insert through the left loops . . .

pulling strands together . . .

to create the second slip knot. This time, the loop in the knot is on the left.

Continue alternating the direction of the loops - right, left, right, etc. to make the knotted strands.

Continue adding two strands together, alternating the direction of the loops and pulling the strands together . . .

to create a knotted decorative stem along the center.

Once all the strands are knotted, tie a knot with the stem strands at the bottom to finish the rows of knots.

Next, brush out the strands using a wire pet brush (which I didn't have). You have to hold down the stem area while brushing so you won't pull any of the knots out. And be especially careful around the bottom end. That area is easy to pull the knotted strands off the stem. I'm sure the type of yarn or cords you use will affect how it brushes out. I tried different brushes including a detangler paddle brush with bristle pins on the yarn and that didn't work either. At one point, I tried unraveling each strand which was unbelievably slow and unproductive and soon gave up on that! Then I remembered a small stiff brush I received with my air fryer oven and used that to brush the yarn out - but really, it just helped to smooth the yarn out but not any actual fluffing like a feather looks!

After brushing the front and back, time to trim the strands for a feather shape. Make sure you use a sharp pair of craft scissors. I started with a few different scissors and had problems cutting the yarn so I had to switch to a more heavy duty type to finish the look.