After putting together this little pom-pom adorned baby mobile one evening before our third baby Amelia was born I thought I would share how you can easily make one too. It’s not particularly complicated and so it should be something nice to do with that nesting instinct, that will have a beautiful decorative outcome.
One lovely thing about having a new baby is working out how to make their space personal and unique for them, and handmade is such a great way to do that. Our babies have always been in our room for the first few months before moving into their own bedrooms, but it’s lovely to have something particularly for them, however small their space is. This mobile is currently hanging in our room above the crib, but even before Amelia came along our oldest Phoebe spent time admiring it and telling me ‘it’s really pretty, I really like it’! Perhaps some pom-pom decoration will have to make it’s way into her room too.
I didn’t take step by step pictures but the simple diy outline below will mean you can make your own one too. As you can see it’s not perfect, but is simple and easy to adapt to suit your own style or design! And for more ideas on how to make a personal space for your new baby, scroll to the end to get the link to a free guide in the library.
- Make a load of pom-poms. I made mine with three different wools- the yellow, a multicoloured yarn and a little green. Some I used my pompom maker for but mostly I just wrapped yarn around my fingers, about 30 times, tied a shorter piece around the middle of them all so it looks kind of like a now tie, and cut both loops of the bow tie. To make smaller ones use less fingers to wrap around.
- Next I trimmed them- you can do this one at a time or as a batch- just be prepared for a lot of fluff! Make them as circular and fluffy as possible. I had 10 in the end but make as many as you fancy.
- Next you string them up- thread a needle, poke through the pom pom and tie and trim so your pom pom is dangling from the thread. If you want to add a second one to the same thread, sew through another pompom- in and out of one side, back into the centre and out again so it stays.
- I chose to leave my pom-poms at random lengths and in a random pattern, then tied the ends of thread to the centre of an embroidery hoop. I had 8 lengths of thread with pom poms in the end. In the absence of an embroidery hoop you could use twigs, dowels or something else that’s light and easy to hang.
- Then I tied two pieces of thread across the top of the hoop so that they made a cross, tying a long loop of thread through that cross to hang from the ceiling
- Hang off a screw hook on the ceiling. At this point you may have to adjust some pom-poms to get it to hang straight, or embrace the imperfection as I did!
Other thoughts:
- you could wrap the twigs or embroidery hoop in wool or ribbon, or paint before hanging your pom-poms.
- if you want to avoid slippage, put a dot of pva glue under each thread once you’re happy they are in place.
- this kind of thing would also work with origami shapes, tiny pom poms or paper flowers
- play with yarn colours or thread colours and see what the effects are! I love how flexible this simple idea is.
**Good news! You can get my lovely free guide to creating a personal baby space over in the library. Just add your email here to get the library password.** (If you already get little letters from me in your inbox, search there for your password!
And if you’re after more ideas for decorating a nursery or child’s room, pop here for book inspired wall hangings and prints.
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