Polka Dot Inspired Baby Mobile

Source Apartment Therapy

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A year ago I attempted to make a mobile for a friend.  I liked it, but I also realized that it was my first attempt and I wanted to try again to make it better.

When I did Canyon’s moodboard,  told her that I would make a mobile to work with the room. Here is the moodboard for a little reminder.

The inspiration for the moodboard was the changing pad that she picked out. I loved the polka dots so I thought I would attempt a circular “polka dottish Mobile” Here is what I came up with.

My friend lives a few hours away and I couldn’t attend her shower so I had to construct it at my house and send it with another friend making the trip. That is why my final picture has the mobile hanging in my kitchen.

I was really amazed how easy this was. I learned a lot and would change-up the order of how I did it. I want to share with you how to do it from what I learned so the pictures might be a little off. Here is what you will need:

Materials:

• Window Interior Trim (I found a ton of these at a restore all for a dollar)  You could use two dowel rods tied or notched together)  Whatever you choose, make sure its is thick enough for an eye hook to screw into the beam.
• Yarn or fabric
• Cardstock
• String the color of the paper.  (or you could use clear string if you were doing multiple colors)
• Sewing Machine
• Scissors
• Circle Cutter (found at
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  scrapbook section at Michaels)  I got the largest one.  It was $16.00 but Micheal gives you a coupon every time your buy something.  I had one for 40% off one item so it cost me $10 with tax

• Hack Saw (optional)  This is if you need to cut the dowel or cross trim down.
• Eye Hooks
• S Hook
• Hook for hanging

Total Cost to make:  a little under $20 if you have to buy everything.  I had the yarn, string and paper (from my Christmas bunting) so it cost me about $15.

Here is how I did it:

1.)  Cut Window trim/wood dowels to the size you want and make sure both pieces are the same size. Here is the piece looked like before I cut it.

2.)  Secure the dowel rod/cross beam together.  Mine was notched already so I secured it with a small screw.  You could notch yours with a hack saw or just tie it together with yarn.

3.)  Attach your cross beam with four eye hooks on the top part of each beam.

4.)  Wrap your cross beam in yarn or fabric.  I did not do this first. The reason why is because I didn’t think I need to do this at all.  I attached all the circles and it was completely finished and I

didn’t like all the string showing tied at the top, so I wrapped it with all the paper circles attached.  I have one word for you….. BRUTAL. It took me so long to wrap the cross beam around the strands!  The yarn is perfect for hiding the string tied at the top.  When you tie the string on it will fit neatly between the yarn and not be seen.  To cover the ends of the beam I glued a few small strands to the end and then wrapped the excess in when I wrapped the beam.

You can see how the string is hidden in the end product…

Note:  If I do this again I might try screwing in tiny eye hooks to the bottom of the beam to tie the strands to.  Before I start the tieing process I will spray paint the entire thing.  I did like the look of the yarn though.

5.)  Determine how full and how long you want your mobile.  I wanted the mobile to be long enough to have a presence but also be out or a reach for a kid standing up in a crib.  (If they are standing up in the crib, that means the crib bed is lowered.  Newborns are who sleeps in the crib when its at its highest point.  I have never met a Newborn that stood so….I determined the length by using the ceiling height and the crib at its lowest point.  I decided the mobile needed to be 8 circles long.  The good news is that if the measurement is wrong…mom can just snip off the bottom layer if needed.

6.)  Set up a temporary hanging system to work on the mobile.   I just used string and tied a not at the end.  I used the center part of the celing fan.  (Dont use the blade….it will break it or bend it)  Remember I hadn’t wrapped the yarn at this point.  I wished I would have, but that is why its not wrapped in this picture.

6.)  I began to sew the circles in the same way I sewed my Christmas bunting.  Make sure you start with excess to tie the strand to the beam.

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7.)  I attached the circles by tying them to the top beam.  I tied a granny not and wrapped it around a few times for good measure.

Note:  for balance reasons I did one strand on each side and would add each strand in that way.

8.)  I put four strands on each part of the beam.

9.)  I cut off the termporary string and tied a peice of yarn to each eye hook (on the end of each beam).  I wrapped it around a few times just for security.  My mobile was not heavy, but if yours is heavy you might want to tie three pieces of yarn and braid it.

10.)  I tied all the strings to a S Hook.  (If you notice I needed a break from standing on a chair so I moved the mobile to my gooseneck lamp.

11.)  I pulled the strings together and tied another piece of yarn around it and wrapped it a few inches.  I did this to help me keep the strings the same length.  It is hard to tie strings to an s hook and tie them in a way that its the exact same length on each side.  I learned that lesson from this mobile that is a little unbalanced. Here is the what it looked like before I pulled the strings together:

You want to start wrapping at the point that the strings meet.  You might need two sets of hands.  I held it and Lee tied a piece of yarn at that point and started wrapping.  After a few wraps, I took over.  I wrapped it all the way to the s hook and then I even wrapped around the bottom of the S hook so that the strings could not slip off. Confused?  The picture will explain:

Do you see how the bottom half of the S Hook is wrapped?

11.) Attach a ceiling hook per the instructions and hang your mobile.  I didn’t want to put a hole in my ceiling so I just hooked it to a large S hook on my curtain rod.

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I can’t wait to make another.

Thanks for reading,

Jennifer