Baby Girl's Bird Mobile

Last night I got to go to another open house for an expectant friend. She's due to have a little girl soon so I couldn't resist making something pretty for her. She kindly shared with me the color scheme that will soon be implemented in the room the baby and her older daughter will share, which gave me the inspiration I needed for my project- a mobile.

You know how much I love mobiles, right? I decided to go with a similar design as the one I used for my son's mobile. Here's the post where I wrote about that one (pictured below).

Unfortunately I didn't remember to take a photo of this new mobile until I'd already gotten it secured into the box, but hopefully you still get the idea.

Instead of using felt for the birds, I fused two layers of heavy interfacing together with Wonder Under, then fused fabric to each side of that and cut out my birds.

Each bird has a different fabric on each side in turquoise, lime green, fuchsia and light pink.

I used bias binding to wrap the embroidery hoop that the birds and dots hang from, and some baby rick-rack for the hanger.

I really didn't want to lay the mobile in a flat box for fear it would get tangled, so I made one to fit using a really huge box I had laying in my garage. It took forever to cut each piece, tape them together and then wrap the whole thing, but it worked out so well that I think I was more proud of the box than the mobile!

A loop of string threaded through holes at the top keeps the mobile hanging on the inside and makes a nice little handle on the outside.

Three little bows keep the "door" shut until it's ready to be opened.

Can you believe I found that pretty paper at the Dollar Tree? Why did I not buy more than just one roll?!!
Anyway, this was a pretty simple project. Just ironing, cutting, stitching and gluing. And really the only sewing involved was running each bird and dot through the machine to string them together. Piece of cake! :)

Mobiles

I like mobiles. I think they're sweet and pretty and very fun decor for a child's room. The other day I got the notion to make one for my son, but I'll show you that one in a minute. First, here's the first mobile I ever made.

I made it for my daughter a couple of years ago using some very simple materials. The butterflies came from a mobile that was used as decoration at my baby shower when I was pregnant with Pyper. The hoop was purchased in Wal-Mart's craft department, and the leaves and ladybugs were made by me.

The leaves were cut from fleece, then zig-zagged onto fabric covered wire stems and attached to the hoop using floral tape.

The ladybugs were made out of flannel, black wire, black pom poms and hot glue.
Everything was then suspended from the hoop with simple sewing thread (though now I wish I'd used something less noticeable.) The string above the hoop is just embroidery floss attached to a key ring.
Now here's Hakan's new mobile.

I'm really loving hot air balloons lately, ever since I discovered this fabric, which has now become the inspiration for two projects.

For this mobile I didn't have to buy anything. I used scrapbook paper from my stash, a stiff cardboard insert that I think had come with a set of curtains or sheets, some monofilament thread, some Mod Podge, a bit of fabric, an embroidery hoop from my collection and some plain white string.

I had a sheet of scrapbook paper that had clouds on it- perfect for my cloud pieces!

Simple paper-covered circles for the balloon, attached to a plain brown basket with string.

I didn't have any ribbon that I liked or I would have used that to wrap the embroidery hoop. I could also have painted it or just left it natural and it would have been fine. What I ended up doing was cutting a 3/4" strip of fabric and wrapping the hoop, tacking with hot glue every few inches or so, then sealing it with Mod Podge.

It hangs pretty low so it couldn't go over Hakan's bed, but I like how this mobile fills the corner by his closet.
Yay for free, fun decor!