DIY Mobile
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Today I want to share a DIY Mobile that I made to hang over my son’s bed. I actually made this over a year ago! Thinking back, I feel like I just had so much more time and energy to be crafty back then. Being pregnant with a toddler at home sure takes a lot out of you. But I really enjoy creating things so I’m hoping to inspire myself to make more time for it again.
Here’s what our bedroom looked like a few weeks before he was born. We co-sleep so I had his crib pushed right up next to ours so that I wouldn’t have to get out of bed to take care of him in the night. (For the record, it’s not safe to have so many pillows in the crib. This was just for a nice photo. I was a crazy nester.) I had bought the paper pendant lantern at the beach years ago and thought it would look so cute over the crib. It really came in handy for a middle-of-the-night light, too.
Unfortunately, my husband thought it was dangerous. And when my son got big enough to pull up on the crib and start messing with the wire, I knew it was time to go. So I made this mobile!
Here are my supplies:
Here’s what I did:
1. I made a trip to the fabric store and picked out three yellow patterns. I used two quilter’s blocks and one 0.25 yd cut fabric. If you have spare fabric, this is a great way to use it up too!
2. I read up on fusible adhesive (Heat n Bond) on the blogs. I dabble in sewing, but really don’t know much. This post is a great resource!
3. I ironed the fabric to the Heat n Bond with a different material on each side. So I had three stiff sheets of double-sided material.
4. Using a cookie cutter and orange fabric marker, I traced the stars on the fabric. The orange marker worked great because if there was a little bit that didn’t get cut off, the color blended in with the fabric.
5. I cut out all the stars.
6. I threaded each star with yellow thread and couple of beads.
7. I tied each thread onto an embroidery hoop. I I played around with the lengths and decided to hang them in descending height. I ended up with twenty hanging stars.
8. I tied 4 strings to the hoop at equal intervals and then tied them all together at the top. This how it hangs. **It would have been better to do this before hanging the stars.**
9. I sealed the hoop along with the strings with Mod Podge to keep them from slipping around.
There are things I would do differently if I made another one. Like I mentioned above, it would have been smarter to attach the top hanger first. I think embroidery thread would be easier to work with and hold a knot better than the slippery and delicate thread I used. I’m a pretty bad butterfingers and I kept dropping the pieces as I was tying them onto the hoop. I would plan ahead better and decide how many dangling threads I want and calculate their distance based on the circumference of the hoop. I’d attach the supporting threads first and fill in the dangles from there.
But overall I’m still happy with this project over a year later. It’s held up just fine and didn’t fall or get messed up when I turned on the ceiling fan, which I was worried about.
Now we wake up to a bright and happy mobile every morning.
There are so many DIY mobile projects I see on blogs and Pinterest now days. Have you tried any? I am thinking of creating a lower-hanging mobile for the new baby with black and white patterns.