DIY colorful mobile, part 1.

Years ago, I saw a really pretty velum DIY hanging wedding decoration on a website {maybe Martha Stewart?} I kept it in the back of my mind, hoping that one day I’d be blessed with a little one who could stare at the colorful decoration as a mobile. Praise the Lord, I’m preparing for that day now.

How about I throw ya a bone and show ya the final product before we dive into the details? Here’s the completed colorful mobile…

Now here is the first half of the steps…

I bought about 16 sheets of colorful velum paper {waxy, see-through stuff) at Hobby Lobby for various prices. Most were $0.69 or $0.50 and then 40% off for a sale. But I got a few that were marked 6/$1 on clearance. So all in all, I spent less than $6 on it.

The next step was to orientate the paper horizontally and cut 1” strips of all the paper. {Does anyone else still think “hot dog” vs. “hamburger” when doing crafts with the paper vertical or horizontal? Okay, maybe it’s just me.}

I was a bit frustrated because the price tags left a residue, so I set the strips that had the sticky marks on them to the side. I never ended up using these. Maybe I’ll come up with another project for these sad reject strips. Here are my pretty 1” x 8.5” strips…

 

The dark blue had a tendency to curl a bit, so they rested under a heavy book for a few days. The next step was to lay out the color pattern and length of the strips of mobiles. I wanted to do three hanging pieces to make the mobile, and I also knew I didn’t want all three to be the same exact length. I taped some yarn to the ceiling to judge how long I wanted them and used my yarn as my guide for laying out the strips of velum. I kept the same color pattern throughout, but made sure each of the three portions started and ended with different colors.

Then, I measured on my sewing machine where the edge of the velum strip would go if I sewed directly down the center of the strips. See the masking tape on the machine? That was my guide to help ensure I sewed in the middle of all the strips…

I used a long, straight stitch with white thread. Once the needle made it to the end of one strip, I sewed 5 stitches before adding my next strip. By counting the stitches in between, I knew all my strips would have even spacing.

See how that works?

Stay tuned for part two tomorrow. :)

P.S. hope ya’ll had a happy Valentine’s Day yesterday. Whether it was a romantic and happy day for you or a disappointing and lonely one, please remember that you are His and He loves you so much that he delights in you and rejoices over you!

“For the LORD your God is living among you. He is a mighty savior. He will take delight in you with gladness. With his love, he will calm all your fears. He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.” Zephaniah 3:17

Much love to my online friends.