DIY Cloud Mobile

A few days before our baby girl was born, in my last-minute nesting craziness, I freaked out because she didn’t have a mobile above her crib. Now never mind the fact that newborns can’t really see beyond a few inches from their face, and the fact that we weren’t planning on having her sleep anywhere but our bed for the first month or more. That didn’t matter because I had it in my head that we needed a mobile and we needed it now.

At this point I was on modified bed rest, so going out shopping wasn’t an option, nor was shopping online because there wasn’t time to have it shipped before she arrived. So I had to make something with materials we had in the house, and I had to be able to do it while sitting comfortably in bed or on the couch. After scavenging around the house for materials, I knew exactly what I wanted her mobile to look like.

Since it is hung above her crib, I wanted it to be peaceful, and help her relax and sleep (ha!), not stimulate her with bright colors and keep her awake. This little cloud mobile was super easy to make and I love the idea of her laying in her crib looking up at the clouds floating above her while she drifts off to sleep.

To make your own cloud mobile you only need a few materials and about 2 hours. And yes, you can make the whole thing while sitting comfortably on the couch.

You will need:

• a piece of thin cardboard (I used a piece of a cereal box)
• white stuffing
• white linen
• a thin wooden dowel
• a needle
• white thread
• scissors (not shown)
• crazy glue (not shown)

Directions:

1. Draw a cloud on your piece of cardboard and cut it out to make a stencil. Then make one stencil slightly larger than the first and one slightly smaller than the first. You will end up with 3 cloud stencils: 1 large, 1 medium, and 1 small.
2. Use the stencils to cut out 1 pair of large clouds, 4 pairs of medium clouds, and 2 pairs of small clouds from the white linen. You will have 14 cloud pieces when you are finished cutting.
3. Take a pair of cloud pieces and stitch around the outside of the cloud using a running stitch. Leave a small opening.
4. Stuff the cloud with the filling and finish stitching up the cloud.
5. Repeat until you have 1 large cloud, 4 medium clouds, and 2 small clouds.
6. Cut the dowels so that you have 1 large piece, 1 medium piece, and 1 small piece of dowel.
7. String a long piece of white thread through a medium cloud using the needle.
8. Attach the string to one end of the medium dowel and tie securely. Repeat with another medium cloud on the other end of the medium dowel, making sure that the strings are the same length so that the mobile will hang evenly.
9. Continue attaching the clouds to the dowels like in the example. Every so often, stop and hang from your finger to make sure that everything is even. Once all of the clouds are attached and it is all level, secure each place where the string is attached to the dowel with a small drop of super glue.
10. Hang your mobile and enjoy looking up at the clouds!

*Be sure to take extra precautions when hanging this or any other mobile. It is not a toy. Keep out of the reach of children.*