Silk Ribbon Rainbows

I remember making these brightly colored hair barrettes for my daughters several years ago and wanted to make one for my grand daughter. It went together very fast and while I was making it, I thought, "This would make a lovely decoration for my rear view mirror in my car." So, I made a larger rainbow out of the 4" plastic canvas coaster and added 2 more rows. It would also look pretty hanging in a kitchen window or from a porch.

Plastic canvas coaster- 3" for barrettes and 4" for decoration. They come in packages of 10

1/4" wide silk ribbon- 6 colors, red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. 18" each for barrettes

Multi-colored tri-beads

metal clasp hair barrette

scissors

measuring tape

Trace around the 3" plastic canvas circle. Cut out the paper pattern. Fold this in half and hold it over the plastic canvas circle. Cut plastic canvas circle in half.

You will only be needing the outer 6 rows for the barrette so cut off the remaining inside portion of the plastic canvas and throw away.

Cut ribbons into 18" lengths. Place a pin at the center of each one. Begin weaving the purple at the bottom center by cutting the end at a sharp angle so it can be pushed through the hole. Pull ribbon through until the pin prevents it from going any further. This will keep the sides even. Weave one side of the purple then remove the pin and finish weaving the other side. Repeat with blue, green, and yellow ribbons. You will need to trim the unraveling threads every so often to make the weaving easier, always cut the end of the ribbons at an angle so you have a point at the end.

The orange ribbon will be the one that the barrette is attached to so, skip this row and weave the red ribbon into the top row.

Place a pin at the middle of the orange ribbon. Begin weaving the orange ribbon at the center of the row and work your way down the side but when you get to the 5th hole from the end, bring the orange ribbon up through it, then through the hole in the side of the barrette and down back into the 4th hole in the row and continue weaving until you get to the end. Repeat with other side of orange row.

If you forget to attach the barrette, you can always sew it on with needle and thread.

Cut the ribbons at an angle, trimming off any unraveling. Place a bead on the end of each ribbon and tie a knot near the bottom, securing the beads.

I made another rainbow to hang from the rear view mirror of my jeep. This one was made from a larger plastic canvas circle (4") and I added 2 more rows of ribbon weaving, extra red at the top and extra purple at the bottom of the rainbow. The ribbons for this were cut at 22" lengths. Instead of a barrette, I attached a string at the top center for hanging before I wove the ribbons. Make sure this rear view mirror decoration does not block your view while your driving.