DIY: Reuseable Protest Poncho

So there’s so much marching and demonstration going on that I got to thinking how wasteful it is to keep making up new placards every week. And carrying a sign can be unwieldy and awkward.

So here’s my invention: the reuseable protest poncho.

I did not invent the Protest Poncho. In fact, my inspiration was a woman I saw wearing a hand made, #NoDAPL protest poncho last year. Practical and warm, I thought. But what if you are marching for several different causes. That’s a lot of ponchos. I also saw a video of a woman with a whiteboard placard that essentially said “There are so many destabilizing and dangerous policies….I had to buy a reusable protest sign.”

So I thought: What’s the fabric equivalent of a whiteboard? And then I remembered those felt activity things from when I was a kid — you know the thing with the felted shapes that you could stick on to a fuzzy backgound?

I got a second hand fleece travel blanket (the kind you get on planes but you can also buy at Dollarama), cut an opening for the head (and blanket stitched it to make it pretty. I couldn’t find a pre-cut felt alphabet, so I just bought some felt squares and made my own typography (a little less wasteful because you are only cutting out the letters you need — although I still ended up with an extra S for some reason)

In the prototype stage, I used glittery stick on letters. During testing I discovered that neither stick like glue, so I tacked them down. It didn’t take too long and again, because it’s meant to be reuseable, the message was easy to remove.

Here is Mr. Andrew modelling the finished version. Feel free to use this concept and feel free to improve upon it. It would be sweet if you gave me some credit if you do share it and  don’t be sneaky and try and pass it off as your own idea.