free to a good home:rainbow

As I mentioned earlier, I have been working on a lot of projects for the new adventure- the preschool/playgroup I'm starting this fall. I was thinking through various traditions and rituals I wanted to create for the children and I figured a birthday tradition would be rather important. And since two of the children have autumn birthdays I knew I should have this planned and ready to go.

Birthday crowns have become an important tradition in our household, so this was an obvious first step. And thought it isn't particularly Enki, I do love the rainbow bridge story that is told in the Waldorf tradition, so a rainbow crown seemed appropriate. I searched etsy for rainbow felt and found none, so with Nicole's recent tutorial in mind, and finding myself with an empty house (save from a baby asleep on my back,) I decided to try to make my own. I cut some white felt using the crown pattern I made for Ari's birthday crown years ago, this time just one solid piece instead of several. I cut out two since this was an experiment.

I mixed up the colours from what I had on hand- a few Koolaid packets (from other dying projects, not drinking!) and some food colour. I considered steaming the felt in between each colour, but I knew time was tight so I risked them all bleeding into each other and just painted them on all at the same time. I did a silk I had on hand at the same time.

I couldn't remember how long Nicole had steamed her yarn for (and didn't have the computer on during this crafting blitz) so I faked it- probably about 10 minutes for each piece. I was worried about the colours running when I rinsed them, but no colour came out at all so I didn't even bother rinsing the others.They looked so pretty drying in the wind.
I backed the crowns with a layer of white felt and blanket stitched them together with some yummy blue linen from my stash for the elastic at the back. I was so excited that the experiment turned out.

It looks rather big on my model, though it does fit his head fine. I can squeeze it on my head too, so we'll call it one-size-fits-all. And since I made two- I will give one of these away. Just leave a comment on this post and I'll draw a name sometime next week.
Good luck!