Color Band

When my best friend of 18 years began to near the end of her second pregnancy, I started brainstorming ways to memorialize the event for her, her family and the circle of friends that had developed around her.

I had heard of birthing necklaces being created during birthingways (which is an absolutely beautiful tradition!) but all the ones I read about involved people sending in beads. While I loved the idea of something a laboring woman could wear that would remind her of all the women who love and support her, I was worried about just how heavy 40+ beads would eventually get. The last thing a laboring woman wants is a couple pounds of glass beads around her neck, right?!

So instead I came up with the idea of contacting everyone through Facebook or email and asked each person to pick a DMC embroidery floss color (from this handy chart). As the color selections came in, I started winding them around a braided cord and eventually I had enough to make a necklace that wound more than twice around her neck and at least four times around her wrist. She is definitely loved by many!

As far presentation went, I decided to keep it minimal and accessible by simply hanging the band off a heart shaped quilting pin inside of a shadow box. That way she’d be able to quickly grab it on her mad rush out the door to the hospital! I added a key chart to the back, matching all the colors with the women who picked them.

You can’t see it in the picture (kinda a last minute addition) but I also printed out a little tag that read, “For every color, there is a woman. For every woman, there is love. For every love, there is you.” I’m sure there’s a better poem out there but after searching for hours, I came up empty handed. Oh well, let me know if you find anything!

I gave her the Color Band last week and I don’t know if it was just pregnancy hormones or that she was truly touched but tears welled up in her eyes when she opened the gift. And the band was there, a few days later when she was induced, wrapped around her right wrist. All the different colors looked beautiful!

I really like how this project turned out and think it could easily be used for a number of situations where a friend or family member could use a little support (big move, loss of a loved one, illness, etc). I guess we all live such crazy hectic lives, it’s nice to be reminded of just how much we are loved and sometimes, something as simple as embroidery floss wound around a braided cord can do the job.

Edit: I wasn’t going to upload this video since I’m kinda goofy in it and it’s really out of focus but you get the basic idea of how to make your own Color Band. Hope you enjoy the “Hello Goodbye” serenade by my 2 yr. old son!