A Children's Fire rain cover.

During dance ceremonies with a Children’s Fire it can rain. Many years as a DS has brought this fact to my attention. So here’s a cheap and pretty easy to make rain cover for the Children’s Fire  designed to go up and down quickly and fold to the size of a large umbrella for storage. You’ll need 6 hazel branches, a 1.1m square fire blanket (~$12), ~8m guy rope, 50cm of cloth tape, 4 nails, 4 eyelets and 4 tent pegs, and a cup of tea if you’re English.

If it looks like rain lay it out on the ground as in the diagram. Do a dry run to find the best position for the pegs and leave them in the ground. Unhook the near two guys and fold it back down. You’ll find it’s a bit wibbly-wobbly in the erection phase but when pegged down it’s quite stable. Best to hold the guys as wide as possible to stabilise it. The blanket will turn slightly brown in the centre but that’s fine.

To make Child’s fire rain cover.

  

1- cut 2 pairs of stout hazel poles  95 cm and 125 cm long by 2-3 cm diameter.

2- drill holes 2 cm from both ends to take string.

3- buy a 1.2 m square fibreglass fire blanket (~$12) and 4+ tent pegs.

4- fold over two opposite edges 5 cm and sew along to make a tube. (pref with a zigzag stitch) Fibre glass fabric frays very easily!

5- insert two thin hazel poles 1 cm dia by 1m long into tubes. These will become front and back edges.

6- on the outside ends of these poles wrap cloth tape around the ends and sew onto fibreglass to make a sandwich  and make a button hole or use an eyelet through.

7- tie together the thick ends of each long and short pair of poles to make a hinge.

8- nail (big headed) through each corner button hole into the thinner ends, front edge to the two long poles and back edge to two short ones. Use a large washer to stop cover coming off if necessary.

9- tie a length of guy rope round the nails of one side to match the length of the extended blanket plus 2 m at either end.

10- measure approx 1.5 m along the front guys and 1 m along the back ones and form loops for pegs.

11- That’s the cover completed, but as it is it won’t fold up, so look at where the back edge pole must be broken for it to fold and snap it there. The whole thing should then fold into a roll for storage. 

12- test it out and practice putting it up and down. There’s a bit of a knack to it but it comes easily.