DIY Cane & Crochet Dreamcatcher | Flower Wall Art Project

I really wanted to make a dreamcatcher-style wall ornament that showcased a crochet doily as the central focal point, so it was then just a matter of deciding how to make the frame around the outside to hold the crochet in place. I think cane is the best choice for this as it is strong for its size, so the finished result will still look light and delicate.

And don't worry if you can't crochet; this is primarily a cane-shaping project and if you can't make the crochet sections you can buy them instead...like I did :)

I hope you enjoy this Instructable!

• Crochet motifs; I bought a large doily and 7 small flowers on Ebay. Ideally, you should look for small circular-ish motifs at least 1" in diameter, and a larger circular motif at least 5". Obviously, if you can crochet you can make exactly what you want in the sizes you want!
• Centre cane (which has a round profile); I used some No. 3 (2 mm in diameter) cane.
• Chair cane (which has a flat profile); I used some No. 3 (2.5 mm wide) cane.
• Large bowl of water.
• Small & large bulldog clips.
• Wood glue & super glue; I used Gorilla wood glue and Gorilla super glue gel.
• A clear Ziploc bag or clear sheet of plastic.
• Pencil/pen.
• Piece of paper.
• Scissors.
• Hand sewing needle.
• Invisible thread.
• Elastic bands.
• Small length of yarn/string/cord.

Draw out a circle just a touch larger than the doily (as you'll want the doily to be held fairly taut across the circlular frame we'll be making), and draw another circle the same diameter as the flower shapes. My large circle is 6” in diameter, and the small circle is 1.25” diameter, but these measurements will entirely depend on the crochet items you have. 

Put this piece of paper in a Ziploc bag or under a clear sheet of plastic. Note that if we don't cover the paper it'll get wet and wrinkle up in a later step.

Soak a length of centre cane in a large bowl of water for about 20 minutes (to make the cane flexible). The amount of centre cane you need will be the circumference of the doily plus a bit (approx. 10 cm) extra, plus 7 x the circumference of a crochet flower, plus a bit (at least 15 cm) extra.

Make a circle using this cane that’s about the same size as the larger drawn circle. Keep the circle shape in place by using a clip, and then cut off the excess cane, leaving a little bit of an overlap.

Then use the rest of the cane to make a circle the same size as the small drawn circle, but this time, make a continuous spiral so that you’ll end up with the number of circle shapes you want for your dreamcatcher. In my case, I looped my cane 7 times, plus a bit more to give me some leeway. Then use clips to hold these cane circles in place.

Leave the cane to dry. This process will set the cane into these shapes.

Note that the photos above show the cane after it has dried (and I've removed the clip from the small spiral of cane).

Mark where you need to cut the larger cane circle to make it precisely the same size as the drawn circle. Then cut the cane at this mark and use super glue to attach the ends together. Whilst this dries, lay the cane on top of something (in my case, elastic bands) to stop the glue touching the work surface.

Next, soak a length of flat (2.5 mm wide) chair cane in a big bowl of water, again for about 20 minutes. Then clip the start of this flat cane to the large circle, at an angle, and start wrapping it around the cane. Continue wrapping all of the way around the circle.

Hold the ends of the flat cane in place with a clip. Briefly remove this clip (whilst holding the wrapped cane in position) to apply a little wood glue to the ends, then replace the clip.

Add more wood glue around the circle - for added security - and then leave the glue to dry.

As you can see, I changed the clip to a more sturdy one to make sure everything was more strongly held in place.

Next, you'll need to sew the crochet doily to the inside of the cane circle. So first, you want to tie the end of a piece of invisible thread onto the circle. Just attach it with a regular double knot.

Use clips to hold the doily in place in the centre, to make it much easier to sew.

Feed the end of the invisible thread into a sewing needle, and then take the needle through the edge of the crochet doily. Then go around the outside of the cane, and then through the edge of the doily again. And you just keep repeating this as you move around the entire circle. Just make sure that you do this evenly so the doily doesn’t end up too stretched or scrunched up in any areas.

You now need to do exactly the same for the smaller circles. So, mark where you need to cut to make the correct sized circles, and then glue the ends of each of these circles together. 7 circles in my case.

I used wood glue at first, but this wasn’t enough to hold the cane on some of them, so I then used the super glue.

You’ll see that some dried a bit egg-shaped, but you can always attach a small clip in these areas and leave it for a while to try and flatten out the cane.

You then soak and wrap the 2.5 mm flat cane around each of these circles, and glue the ends in place with wood glue. Plus add a little extra wood glue around the rest of the circle too, to keep everything nice and secure.

Once those are all dry, you may need to add more glue to a couple of places and use clips to reshape some of the circles, before then cutting off the excess cane.

You can then use invisible thread again to sew the crochet flowers into place on the inside. Tie the thread onto the cane at the beginning and end.

To finish the main circle shape, soak some more 2 mm centre cane, and then wrap it around an appropriately-sized bottle; I used my wood glue bottle. Wrap the cane at least several times and secure it with elastic bands. Then leave it to dry.

Once dry, cut the cane into semi-circles, or arches. Arrange these arches around your circle shape to decide how many you’ll need to get the result you want. It’ll likely look best if you have an odd number of arches – I decided on 7.

You can make these arches as large or as small as you wish, it just depends on the effect you want, and what size bottles you have available. Once I decided on 7, I bunched them together and cut them across the ends so they were all the same size.

When you’re happy with the size of them, use wood glue to attach them to the main circle.

My arches were 2.5” wide and 1” high.

Once the glue is dry, use invisible thread to join all of the circles together in the dreamcatcher arrangement. Simply tie the thread onto the circles to attach it.

My smaller circles ended up about 2” apart in the finished dreamcatcher, and the whole thing measured about 17” in length.

And finally, add a loop of yarn or string at the top to allow you to hang it up.

And that's t!

I hope you liked this DIY :D