I just love the DIY touches in our little girl’s nursery. While planning out her room, I came across these stuffed birds. I’d made them years before and left them in a packet, not really knowing what to do with them. Now, suddenly, I knew what they were for; her very own bird nursery mobile.
You can see the full nursery room tour here.
What You Need:
Soft stuffed animals (DIY* or bought)
Embroidery hoop (just the inner ring)
Wooden beads
Cotton (Either a thick and a thinner one or just a thin one, depending on preference)
Cold glue
Cup hook, for attaching to ceiling
*To DIY the birds simply cut out two pieces of fabric for each bird. Allow about 1 cm around all edges for the seam. Sew them together, face to face, leaving about 4cm open along the base of the bird. Turn them the right way out, stuff and hand stitch them up. Use a dark thread to hand stitch a little eye.
What To Do:
Start by doing a mock up. This is optional, but allows you to test out spacing before making the final product. Alternatively, you could lay all the beads and stuffed animals out in little lines, as if they were threaded. Using the steps below, most of the beads will be adjustable until glued, which will allow for some placement correction.
Once you’ve got a rough idea of the beads placement, thread them onto your thin thread. For beads that are at the bottom of a thread or where you want the bead to “float” along the cotton thread, thread the cotton through the bead at least twice. For the bottom bead, cut the thread so that the tail end sits inside the bead’s hole. For extra strength, secure it with a little blob of glue inside the hole.
If the animal/bird is above some beads then thread your cotton right through the animal, making a small backstitch at either top or bottom of the bird, to hold it in place. Continue with the beads above the animal, as described above.
Be sure to leave enough cotton at the top end to allow for tying onto the embroidery hoop.
For threads that start with an animal at the bottom, begin by doing a few backstitches on the top side of the animal and then continue as normal with the beads.
Repeat this for each thread and lay them out neatly as you go. I’ve got a total of seven threads, but you can do as many or as few as you like.
Tie each thread onto the hoop, evenly spaced out. Start by tying them all loosely. Once you’re happy with the spacing, loop the cotton around the hoop again and tie tightly.
Add some glue to each of the thin cotton strands. This adds extra strength and also glues down the bit of cotton left from cutting off at the knot.
Using the thicker cotton, cut 4 pieces double the length from the hoop to where your cup hook will be in the ceiling. Fold each piece in half and thread it around the hoop and through itself, as seen below. This is what is going to hold your mobile up.
Thread all the long thicker cotton threads through one bead and tie these around a cup hook in your ceiling. Trim off any excess thread.
I’d love to see your Pure Sweet Joy DIYs. Show me on Instagram using #puresweetjoyblog or email me at deborah [at] puresweetjoy [dot] com. Like what you see here? Follow along on Facebook or Bloglovin or subscribe to the newsletter for exclusive access to the latest news and freebies.
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