DIY Yarn Wrapped Rainbow
What you need:
Thick rope, about 5/8 inch wide. The length will depend on your rainbow’s size.
Thread or yarn, in a variety of colors, for wrapping. Thicker threads or wool will be much quicker to wrap, but I like the thin thread look better. You can really go wild here by trying different textures, colors, thicknesses or even adding some metallic yarn.
Wire, strong enough to hold a shape, but easy enough to bend with your hands.
Cotton, for sewing the layers together.
Normal straight needle, large enough for the thread used to wrap your rope.
Curved upholstery needle
Scissors
Wire cutting pliers
Tape
Ribbon, for hanging
What to do:
1. Start by laying out the rope in your rainbow shape. Cut each piece and tape up the end to keep it from unraveling. Remember to leave enough extra rope for the fringe.
2. Cut a piece of wire and bend it the shape of the rainbow layer. Keep the wire a bit shorter than where you want the rope to be wrapped.
3. Using a clear tape, tape the wire to the rope at either end and in the center. This tape will get wrapped around and covered and will then be stitched through, so don’t make it too thick.
4. Start wrapping the rope with your thread. Since I’m using a thin thread, I pulled of a long section and doubled it up twice. This meant I was wrapping four pieces of thread at a time, making it MUCH faster.
Start by tying a simple knot around the rope. Lay the extra tail of thread up, on the rope. Wrap your thread around the rope, covering over the tail end.
Keep all wire, knots, stitching and other extras on the back side of your rope rainbow layers.
5. Keep wrapping your thread around the rope, making sure that the front side of the layers is neatly and fully covered. If small bits of rope show through on the back it’s not the end of the world. They can often be covered over at the end, by rubbing the threads a bit.
Once you’ve finished wrapping that color, tie another knot at the other end. If it doesn’t feel secure, tie another one. Thread the tail pieces through, under the wrapped thread and them trim them off neatly.
With each layer, be sure to line them up when wrapping to try and get the wrapped colors to match up as neatly as possible at the ends.
6. Stitch the layers together, one at a time. A curved upholstery needle makes the job so much easier! Do a back stitch on the back side, at one end of the wrapped rope. Make sure it’s firm. Zigzag back and forth between the new outside layer and the layer before it. Do a back stitch every now and then to keep it all tightly together.
7. Unravel your rope fringe and practice your hair-styling skills, by giving the rainbow a haircut. I really loved the look of the long fringe, but since my inner layer had a short fringe I had to try even it out a bit. Rather than cutting the whole fringe the short length, I chose to cut a slightly messier, layered look. This meant I could blend in the short fringe section with longer pieces.
8. Finally, to hang it up, sew a small strong ribbon or piece of cord onto the back center of the rainbow, Be sure to sew it on securely. Since the full weight of the rainbow will hang on this ribbon the stitches must go into the actual rope, ideally right through, rather than just pulling on the outer wrapped thread.
