Weather Bag Tutorial

a little rain and a rainbow

Okay, the title is a bit misleading since there isn't very much tutelage in this post.  But I think just the pictures are enough for you to copy the idea.  It happened in a flash of inspiration and an hour playing on the floor with Ouise.  It wouldn't have taken so long, but I was working on a separate project at the same time.  If you already have a felt stash and some glue you can put it together in no time.

a rainy day

I wanted to make something for her to recreate the weather she sees outside.  We tried this with the little weather coloring zine, but it's kind of a one shot deal.  This can be reused over and over.  I didn't draw anything first, I just cut out shapes.  The sun, clouds, lighting bolt, and moon are just felt.  The rainbow is made of a large red strip of felt, with small blue and yellow strips glued on top.  The rain drops are little beads, and the snow is a bit of poly-fil.  At first I cut out tiny bits of felt for the rain and snow, and then I imagined them sticking to every surface in my house and I threw them out.

 The bag is dark on one side and light on the other (that was Ouise's good idea), and it's made of fleece, so I didn't hem it. Just sewed two 5 inch-ish squares together leaving one end open, and turned it right side out.  You can keep all the pieces in the bag and then use it as the sky when you get the pieces out.  A sticky closure would be a good idea so all the little pieces don't fall out.  Maybe the stick on kind so you don't see a bunch of stitching in your sky?   I'll have to look and see if I have any...

snowy day

I asked L to make me a rainy day, and a stormy day, and then she'd suggest a snowy day.  We just kept mixing it up.   It's so neat to see how her brain works.  She dropped the rain from high above like it was raining.  Also, she thought the storm should have a dark sky even though it wasn't night.

a dark and stormy night

a cloudy day

Also, it got covered in cat hair within minutes of playing on the floor with it.  I'm just going to pretend you can't see that in the pictures.  This was too quick and fun to make complicated.  :)

Updated to Add:   I decided to go ahead and make a zipper pouch (here's a good tutorial).  The beads kept falling out, and otherwise L was going to make me tie a bow around it.   And while we were at it, we threw in a few extra squares in different blues and creams for different sky colors.  I'm surprised how much play this little thing has already gotten.  I'm going to keep it on our school bookshelf, and we'll get it out a couple times a week, especially when we have some unusual weather.