Coat Hanger Weaving

coat hanger weaving

Here’s another art project that Fen came home from school with- coat hanger weaving. I’ve been meaning to dive into some weaving up in this joint, and here it comes walking in our front door. She enjoyed it so much at school, she asked if she could show me how to do it.

How cool is it when a kid wants to teach you something they’ve learned?

I scrounged the house for wire coat hangers, because as a rule I try not to keep them. They make me a little queasy- but I managed to find 2 and we got to weaving! Lucky for us I have an obsession with yarn, so we had the pick of my stash….

Materials:

  • Wire coat hanger
  • Yarn
  • Scissors
  • Extras, if you please (beads, sequins, charms, anything you want to weave in there with the yarn)

Directions:

Use your superhuman strength to stretch out the coat hanger into somewhat of a circle shape.

Start with a piece of yarn the diameter of the circle and tie it to both edges, straight across the circle. Do this 7 more times, with 2 different colors of yarn. You’ll want 8 “spokes” in all, alternating the 2 colors. This helps you keep track of what you’re doing while you are weaving.

coat hanger weaving • Artchoo.com

You now want to add 1 piece of yarn, in a 3rd color, to just the radius of the circle. (Oh be still my heart, there’s more math involved!) Tie this piece from the center out to the edge.

coat hanger weaving • Artchoo.com

Now get your weaving hat on, ’cause we’re diving in! Take a piece of yarn the size of your wing span and tie one end to the middle of your spokes. Weave over and under as you go around in a circle from the inside out. When you reach the end of your yarn, you tie it to a spoke and cut off the dangly end. Just keep doing this with new colors, making whatever kind of pattern or non-pattern you like.

wing span yarn

La La La

Keep weaving.

coat hanger weaving • Artchoo.com

You can choose to weave on and on or do some fancy things like I did here- I took 2 of the spokes together and wrapped yarn around them and along the hanger edges. Experiment and have fun!

coat hanger weaving art project for kids

coat hanger weaving project • Artchoo.com

 

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15 thoughts on “Coat Hanger Weaving”

    • Now you’ll have to make TONS of them, Leslie. Fill up your hangers! It’s the kind of project you’ll work on for a little bit, put aside, and pick up again. Kind of fun to work this way.

      Reply
  1. Now I know what to do with all those dry cleaning hangers! And look at you with your fancy new theme! But where’s my favorite dinosaur friend?

    Reply
  2. We need to get our grubby hands on some wire hangers and give this a go! Thanks for a great summer craft idea.

    Reply
  3. Interested in doing this with my toddler grandson this summer! I’m wondering how you might take it off the hanger once project is complete?!

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    • I’ve only ever seen it left on the hanger, as then you can hang it on the wall or from the ceiling by the hanger. BUT! If you are adventuresome and want to take it off the hanger, it would probably tighten up since it’s not stretched out anymore across the hanger. I know the hanger isn’t so lovely, hmmmmm maybe you could snip off the top of the hanger and completely cover the hanger with more yarn.

      Reply

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