Baby Mobile

Last week a good friend of mine had a little baby boy.  Ahhhh I hear you say.
And so I set about trying to decide what on earth I could give her as a present considering that she is a master crafter herself and has been knitting cardis and blankets for months and also my kids wanted to help me make something.  So I decided that a baby mobile would be a nice idea.
(Apologies in advance for the pictures but the finished mobile was so long that the only place I could hang it to photograph it was in the kitchen).

Firstly I got a bag handle and covered it on ribbon and hid the seam with a green spotted bow.
Then the kids picked out buttons and helped me to sew them on little felt flowers and stars.  Great practice for them.

We cut out shapes in fabric that the kids thought they would like on a mobile for their room. A moon, , butterfly, fish and two different hearts.  We sat on a rainy afternoon and quite happily stitched to our hearts content.  They may not have been pure perfection but there was a lot of effort put into it.
I then laid out the pieces in rows as they would appear on the mobile and with a darning needle and a long piece of embroidery floss, I began to sew them together starting with the fabric shapes and knotting the thread under each new felt shape added.

I had some thick felt rope hanging around for ages and I knew that I would eventually find a use for it and this was just ideal.
I cut up five pieces, one for the loop and four to tie to the hoop of the mobile.
I must admit I got my hubbie to do one of his fancy fisherman knots to tie it all together and then I secured it by stitching on this fabric and felt butterfly.
I hung the embroidery floss and shapes to the hoop by stitching the end of the floss to where the felt rope is attached to the hoop, securing it very tightly.

 Oh geees, I hope that this has not been too confusing!