Craft Corner - All About the Jubilee

This year marks a very special event for the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth. On the 6^{th of} February, Her Majesty the Queen became the first British monarch to celebrate 70 years on the throne.

To celebrate the Platinum Jubilee, we are having a 4-day Bank holiday weekend starting on Thursday 2^nd June till Sunday 5^th June. There will be lots of activities and celebrations happening across the country and in your communities so make sure you visit https://www.royal.uk/get-involved to see what events are happening near you.

We have come up with some ideas that you can use to decorate your home or wear when you are joining in with a street party or watching the celebrations on the TV.

Union Jack Heart

This is an incredibly easy make to do, and it looks amazing once its finished. All you need to make this simple wreath is a heart wire shape and coloured wool.

1. Start by tying the blue wool to the wire heart. I have used Olympus DK wool as it is available in all 3 colours.
2. Once the wool is secure, you can start wrapping it around the heart, any way you want. It doesn’t have to be neat, just as long as the heart is fully covered. It took a whole ball to cover the heart in the picture.
3. Once you are happy with your coverage of blue, you can then tie the end to secure it so it doesn’t all come off. You can then start with the white. We have done the diagonal lines first and then the horizontal and lastly the vertical. You can make them thicker if you prefer or, to help keep them in place, you can use double sided tape on the area the white will be going. When you have finished the white, this can be tied on again to keep it secure.
4. Repeat what you did with the white but with red. You don’t want as much red as you need to be able to see the white on the edges.

And there you have it. This lovely, simple heart can be displayed anywhere in your home or on an inside door. You could even decorate it with some flowers or create a hanger out of some ribbon.

Felt square brooches

These lovely flower brooches are a perfect addition to any outfit. All you need to make these brooches are some felt squares, a button or decorations, glue gun and a brooch pin.

1. Start by cutting out your shape. I have gone for a flower shape, you can just do a circle or cut out triangles. If you aren’t the best at drawing, you could always use cookie cutters to get the shape you want. I drew my shape on a bit of paper. I started with the largest size then drew the 2 smaller sizes in the middle so I could see what it would look like altogether and make sure the sizes were how I wanted them.
2. Once I was happy with the size and shape, I drew round the paper onto the felt square. If you are using cookie cutters, you will be able to draw the shape directly onto the felt square. When you have drawn around each size on the 3 felt squares, you can cut them out.
3. Now that everything is cut and ready to go, I glued them together. Make sure you glue them so that any outline from drawing the shape is facing down.
4. Next you need to glue on the brooch pin to the back. I used a glue gun to glue everything together as I found it was the most secure way to do it. You could use fabric glue if you do not want to use a glue gun. And that’s it. If you don’t have a brooch pin, you can also use a safety pin. Again, another easy make done. You could add a button to the middle to make it more like a flower. I have used a purple button as that it the colour of the jubilee.

Pipe cleaner crown

This is a perfect activity to do with the kids as a way of getting them interested and talking about the Jubilee and the different events that will be happening. All you need to make this crown is some chenille stems.

1. You start by getting one of each colour stems and twisting them around each other to make one thick stem. You can then twist both ends together to make a circle shape for the base of the crown. You might need to use more than one stem, depending on the head circumference, I have used 2 twisted together.
2. Next, you can start the spikes. To make these, again, twist one of each colour stems around each other and then twist an end around the base of the crown, make a point in the middle of the stem and then twist the other end around the base of the crown.
3. Repeat this step until you have filled the crown and that’s it! This is a perfect make for children as you only need one thing and there are no tools involved. You don’t have to use red, white, and blue. You could use purple or silver or gold. You could make each point a different colour and alternate them. You could add pompoms onto the top of the points to make it look like jewels. There are so many options and different variations you could do.

Knitted bunting

Bunting is one of the most versatile decorations. You can make bunting for almost any occasion, weddings, birthdays, summer bbqs, Christmas, Halloween you name it, you can make bunting for it. For the Jubilee, we decided to do a knitted bunting. Its so simple to make, it is perfect for beginners. All you need to make this bunting is some wool, knitting needles (we have used size 4mm) and something to attach the flags to. We have used red, white, and blue bakers’ twine.

1. Start by casting on 30 stitches. You may want to make bigger or smaller flags, it is up to your preference.
2. Knit 3 rows with 30 stitches and then on the 4^th row, you want to decrease by knitting together 2 stitches at the beginning and end of the row. So your 4^th row should be 28 stitches.
3. Knit another 3 rows with 28 stitches and then decrease by knitting together 2 stitches at the beginning and end of the row again so your 8^th row is 26 stitches.
4. Keep going in that pattern until you get to your last stitches which you can knit together to make a point.
5. When you have got the quantity of flags you would like, you can start to attach them to your twine. Instead of using twine, you could use ribbon, or you could plait together the 3 colours of wool. For ours, I threaded the bakers’ twine through the flags with a needle and made sure I had left plenty at each end so it could be hung nicely. Once this is done, you can display it anywhere in your home or as part of a window display or even part of a street party display.

If you don’t want to knit some flags, you could use strips of ribbon to make bunting. You could either cut them and attach them in the shape of a flag or you could just attach them in strips in any order.

I hope you found these makes useful and will make something to adapt to your homes. Enjoy celebrating!