https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/sweet-dreams-baby-mobile • Posted by Rumana @thelittlepomegranate
A hand crafted baby mobile with lots of textures and colours to keep them entertained. As well as being on trend, its a great stash buster!
A hand crafted baby mobile with lots of textures and colours to keep them entertained. As well as being on trend, its a great stash buster!
If you don’t have the same things to hand I would ‘shop’ your own stash and come up with creative alternatives! Yarn instead of embroidery threads, or normal sewing thread instead of cotton crochet thread etc.
Clouds: Print off the template for the clouds. Trace around and cut out the clouds from the white felt (10 large clouds and 16 small clouds). Each cloud uses two pieces so in the end you will have 5 large ones and 8 little ones.
Layer two cloud shapes together and starting on the flat side, stitch around the edges with a blanket stitch using the white embroidery floss. Stop 2cm from the end, stuff with a teeny bit of filling and carry on stitching until you close the shape.
Tassels: Make a total of thirteen tassels using my tassel tutorial. I used four different colours which meant I had 4 in one colour and 3 in the rest.
Crochet Balls You don’t necessarily have to be made with crochet, you could use pom-poms or beads, or even crochet around beads. It just so happens that I can crochet I had lots of yarn to hand. If you like to crochet heres a simple pattern I used to make the balls. Working in rounds: Round 1: ch2, 5sc in 2nd chain to create a magic circle (5) Round two: 2sc in each stitch (10) Round three and four: sc10 (10) Add in some stuffing if you want to give it a more plump look. Round five: dec 5 (5) Round six: dec 2 (3) And use the tail to close the stitches and fasten off the ball
Lay it out and plan your clouds out. You need three long strands and two shorter ones.
My long ones had: small cloud, large cloud, small cloud. And my short ones have smallcloud and a large cloud on one, and reversed (large cloud, then small cloud) on the second. Throw in the balls and tassels as you like, making sure you have a tassel at the bottom. Once you’ve planned it out (or used my plan in the photo) we need to start threading the pieces on. Cut your cotton crochet thread to 80cm lengths (there will be an extra long tail so you can play around with the hang afterwards).
Thread a needle (single thread) and tie a knot at the end. To keep each piece (cloud, ball, tassel) in place along the thread you’ll need to secure it with a double knot. Starting from the bottom of strand- for tassels put your needle through the bottom and come out of the centre of the head part.
For clouds tie a knot, thread the needle through the centre of the cloud and tie another knot at the top.
Once you’ve threaded all your strands we need to attach them to the hoop. Remove the outer ring (with the screw closure) of the embroidery hoop and place to one side. We’ll be working with the inner hoop.
Start with a long strand decide on the length of hang you want from it. Tie it to the hoop and secure with a knot.
Wrap the tail around a few more times and secure with a bit of tape on the outside of the hoop. These will be hidden by the outer ring of the embroidery hoop. Repeat this with the other strands making sure they are evenly distributed around the hoop- but play with the lengths. I like that each of mine has a slightly different drop- it gives it a more interesting effect.
To finish off, hold the mobile out and tie off the five tails together in a knot- making sure the hoop hangs evenly. Make a loop and knot again before trimming off the excess. It’s now ready to hang! We used a ceiling hook bought from a DIY store and hung it directly from the ceiling.