It doesn’t really surprise me that my child pays no heed to the due date. Timing has never been my strength, and honestly, I don’t see that as a huge weakness most of the time. It can be as you try to catch a movie from start to finish or when you’re working to meet concrete deadlines at work. But, I’m mostly late for everything. It’s even a small reason why I go to the Sunday School class that I do. Starting late doesn’t bother people in that group. In my world, start and finish times are generally considered suggestions. This is a bit contradictory for a Type A personality, but it seems to be built into whatever construction makes me who I am.
Driftwood, wire, hooks
The upside of baby girl being a week past her due date is that I had time to get this mobile completely finished before she arrives. In less than a week, the project went from inspiration to fruition.
11 birds total. 3 pieces of driftwood collected along the banks of the Mississippi River. Copper jewelry wire, small hooks, a bit of glue, stick on velcro, swivel hook and large hook (for the ceiling mount and so that the mobile could be more mobile).
Birds Perched
When my son was a baby, he would reach towards the fish circling above on his mobile. My grandmother, being a great grandmother, simply cut them off and gave them to him. Learning a lesson from that, we engineered this mobile with removable figures (thus the velcro). If we start removing birds, the worst that should happen is a little unbalancing until they’re replaced. The glue seems to be more of a stabilizing agent for the hooks and wires than anything. That part of assembly fell to my husband.
This is our favorite pair.
The birds were hand sewn using pieces of fat quarters that I bought at Sew Memphis, our local fabric store. I tried to pair coordinating fabrics so that I had a pair of each birds. The odd bird out is the brown and blue one at the top of the mobile. I made that one as my first trial bird using scrap material from the apron project. The blue was scrap material from my great-grandmother’s stash. There’s technically still time to pair them up, but I like the asymmetry. Plus, 11 is prime.
This was thoroughly satisfying despite not being able to hone my machine sewing skills with it. I love the result, and I love what it cost. Even if you discount the fact that we only used a portion of the materials that we purchased, the project totaled less than $50. If you guesstimate project cost from the materials that remain, we probably spent under $25 total. Compared to the lovely, handmade mobiles I saw on Etsy and at a local baby boutique, this is a steal. I think, even compared to the fish mobile that coordinated with my son’s nursery set 12 years ago, this is a steal.
Now we just need a soundtrack of birds singing in the forest. I’m thinking the opening soundtrack to Bambi or Snow White.
oh, i’m working on one of these right now, too, for my dumpling-to-be! fortunately, i still have a few months to finish it off
i like your idea of attaching them with velcro – i may borrow that. your mobile looks great!
Thanks! It worked out better than I’d hoped. Good luck with yours! It was a fun little project.
Pingback: Liberty Bibs – just not Liberty | pimplyserfect