Mother Crafter

Owl Mobile Tutorial

I love mobiles. And I love owls (who doesn’t?). But mobiles and owls? Equals obsessive love.

To start Mother Crafter and kick off the tutorials I will share with you the mobile I made for Paloma’s diaper changing station.

To make this cute mobile, you will need the following:

• Fabric Scraps
• Interfacing
• Medium size Embroidery loop (mine is 9″ and I got it at the Thrift Store for $.99)
• 2.5 yards of ribbon
• Yarn (any type, although one with texture adds more dimension)
• 3″ Styrofoam ball (this will depend on the size of the loop, so adjust accordingly)
• Fiberfill
• Tape, scissors, fabric glue and/or hot glue gun, pins
• Mobile Pattern

I have to admit I was too lazy to make the pattern (as a new mom I have the right to be like that sometimes, right? Right?)  so instead I  went over to The DIY Dish (follow them if you don’t already, they are awesome) to find the Look Whoooo’s Back pincushion they did at the beginning of Season 2, and I omitted the legs. Thank you Kim and Kris!

Once you have everything you need, put some happy music on, pour yourself a glass of wine (or, em,  lemonade if you are breastfeeding like me) and manos a la obra! (get to work!)

Cut 6 owls using the owl pattern from The DIY Dish. Use different colors and prints to catch baby’s attention. Apply interfacing to all the pieces to make them sturdier; if your fabric is more on the heavy side you can skip this step. Secure the wings, eyes and beak to one of the body pieces using the fabric glue.

Stitch using a zigzag stitch. Repeat with the rest of the owls until you have six completed.

Sew the front and back pieces, right side together with a 1/4″ seam, leaving a 2″  open gap on one side. Clip the ears and the curves close to the seam, being carefully not to cut through the thread.  Turn out all the owls and stuff with the fiberfill.

Close the gap using a ladder stitch. This could be a pain (I do not like this part!) so if you are not familiar with this stitch and need some help, Melly and Me has a great tutorial that shows you how to do it.

Now decide how long you want the owls to hang from the loop and if you want them all to be the same or hang at different levels. Cut six pieces of the desired length – this is up to  you. Mine are: 8″, 9″, 11″, 13″, 14″ and 15″. Attach each ribbon to the back of the owls at about 1″ from the top, so the owls hang at an angle and the baby can see their faces.

Now attach the other end of the ribbons to the bigger loop, randomly or in increasing order if you cut them at different lengths. You might want to attach with tape first and see if you like them and then glue them on the inside so it will not be visible.

Cut 4 pieces of ribbon about 5″ long each and glue them to the smaller loop in a cross pattern. Wrap the styrofoam ball with the yarn and glue the ends of the ribbon forming a cross too. I used a pin to secure the ribbons first, so I could check that they were accurate when hanging. If you do so, please remove the pin as you glue for safety reason (you do not want that pin too close to your baby). 

Put the two loops together and add a small ribbon loop to the top of the ball. And you are… finito!

Hang in your favorite location and enjoy along with your baby! Do not forget to give it a spin for extra fun!

I hope you enjoyed this first tutorial! I want to see yours, so please upload it to Mother Crafter Project Pool Flickr account!

Please remember: Mother Crafter tutorials are for personal use ONLY. Not for resale or commercial use.