When my children were babies, I always had the hardest time finding mobiles that I liked. Most of the mobiles I saw were made up of very cutesy things like plush teddy bears, butterflies, etc. Those are fine but just not my style.
So, I ended up making mobiles for my children. I could make it exactly what I wanted and it made it more special because I made it for them. Not to mention, those little plush mobiles are expensive!
When planning the recent baby shower that a few of my friends and I put together, one of my friends had the wonderful idea to make a mobile to hang over the gift table and send home with our mom-to-be. I loved that idea!
I LOVE LOVE how this mobile turned out!
Here is what you need:
wooden dowels (from the wood craft section at Hobby Lobby)
acrylic paints
yarn
felt
2 different sizes of embroidery hoops
light colored thread
twine
scissors
glue gun
We started out by cutting part of our arrows down to make smaller arrows for the bottom hoop of the mobile. Then we went to painting part of the wooden dowels. You can paint them one solid color or add stripes. We left some of the dowels unpainted and wrapped them with yarn. You simply wrap and then tie off with a knot at the end.
*For our mobile, we used 10 large arrows (5 yarn wrapped, 5 painted) and 7 smaller arrows (4 painted, 3 yarn wrapped).
Now, onto your felt pieces. Choose your colors and then grab your scissors.
You can draw your first arrow head and feather pieces, cut them out and then use them as your template for the rest. You will need two pieces for each arrowhead and each set of feathers.
Once you have all of your pieces painted, wrapped, and cut out, you'll need to grab your glue gun. Take your two arrowhead pieces and place your dowel between them, adding a few lines of hot glue. Press them together.
Next, take your two feather pieces, place the dowel in the middle of them, slightly overlapping the inner edges of the feather pieces with a line of hot glue.
Now that your arrows are done, it is time to assemble the mobile.
First, tie a piece of thread to the end of each arrow- the feathers will hold it in place when it is hanging.
Now, set your arrows aside for a moment and attach the two hoops together.
For this next part, you will need a partner to hold the embroidery hoop while you attach the two hoops. This part takes a little bit of patience as you will need to adjust the thread/length so that your hoops hang evenly.
You will just slightly pull apart the two rings of the large hoop, just enough to string the end of your thread between the two pieces of the large hoop, once you have it in place, slide the ring back into place and tie your string. You will do this 4-5 times. Once all strings are in place on the large hoop, you will then attach them to the small hoop below, in the same way.
Once you have your hoops in place, then you will
tighten the screw on your embroidery hoop, keeping the threads secure and
in place.
Now, that the base of our mobile is made, let's add some arrows!
Start by attaching your long arrows to the big hoop. This part is much easier. Choose how long you want them to hang down, then simply tie the thread over the hoop and knot.
And then, attach your smaller arrows to the small hoop.
And lastly, grab your twine, cut into 5 long pieces and tie each piece onto the large hoop, spacing them out as you go. Once they are all tied off, bring them together and tie in a knot, leaving a loop to hang the mobile by.
Viola! You are done!
And look what you have to show for it! :)
Feel free to ask questions if you have any! I will do a better job taking photos during the making process next time. This time, it was just GO time and we had to get it done!
Enjoy!
-Jenny
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