Hallelujah. I made something.
It’s amazing what happens when I prioritize instead of fussing about how many blog posts I should get up in X number of days. You guys are awesome. Thanks for all of the comments, support, compliments and criticism on Monday’s post. I hope I didn’t sound too whiny. I really am thankful to be staying home with my kids.
So now onto something fun – a mobile I made for Mabrey’s room.
After I ‘finished’ Mabrey’s room, I thought it was missing a little something. The changing table side of the room needed a pop of color and I thought mimicking the ombre wall art would be a nice touch. I envisioned a colorful ombre fabric chandy.
I bought four fabric quarters from JoAnn’s for $2 each and an embroidery hoop from Michael’s for 25 cents. Actually it was only half of an embroidery hoop. The part with the tightening screws was missing but I didn’t need it, so I kindly asked the manager if there was anyway she could come down on the price. She asked if 25 cents would work and I almost hugged her. Seriously? What can you buy for 25 cents nowadays?
In all, I had less than $10 wrapped up in this chandelish mobile.
I chose off white, pink, coral and raspberry fabric quarters. All but the pink had subtle patterns. I used the bottom of a plastic cup to trace circles onto the reverse side of my fabric with a pencil.
Then I cut out the circles with fabric scissors. I don’t know how many there were but it took me a while. It was quite therapeutic. You could probably DIY an easier version with paper circles but I wanted something soft and fluttery.
I tied two pieces of fishing line perpendicular to each other across the embroidery hoop so I would have something in the middle of the hoop to tie my center circle strands onto.
Then I used my sewing machine and white thread to sew the circles into various length ombre strands. FYI – This would be a great project for someone just learning to sew on a machine.
I started on the outside of my mobile, sewing and hanging the shortest strands first. I wanted the center of my chandy to be the longest. To hang the strands, I tied the long lead thread at the top of the strand {near the white} around the hoop. Easy.
I would make a few strands, tie them onto the hoop then hold it up to see how things were looking. It was very spontaneous.
Once I liked how the outer layer was looking, I began adding longer strands to the center of the hoop via the aforementioned fishing lines.
This is where it started to fill in nicely and I could see it taking shape.
I kept going until it was nice and full. {Notice the center strand is the longest.} Then I tied more fishing line onto the finished hoop to hang it.
This is what it looked like from above. I trimmed up the stray threads and fishing line to clean it up a bit.
I had a few fabric circles leftover and saved them for another little project. TBA.
Mabrey was napping when I finished. I hung the mobile on the wall sconce above the sink to make sure I liked it. I LOVED it.
When Mabrey woke up, I hung the mobile from the ceiling in her room with a piece of double-sided 3M adhesive tape. That stuff is sticky! It’s white and blends right into the ceiling.
It’s the perfect pop of fun color for the dark corner. I love how the reverse sides of all the different fabrics give the chandy an added dynamic. Instead of four defined tiers of color, there’s a more random and soft ombre effect. I left the hoop natural and like the way it picks up on the mirror’s oak frame and woven basket. You could easily paint it or wrap it in ribbon for a more polished look.
Mabrey noticed it right away during her next diaper change. I imagine this is what it looks like to her from below.
It reminds me of confetti. But bigger. And less messy.
It feels good to be DIYing again. Hopefully, there’s more where that came from.
images: Dana Miller for House*Tweaking
budget decor, DIY, kid-friendly