In last week’s nursery reveal, I shared the Stuffed Bunny Nursery Mobile I made for Lucy. When I first started planning this space, I was on the hunt for a small, light mobile to put above her crib and couldn’t quite find exactly what I was looking for. As is often the case when a search like that comes up dry, I decided to try and make one myself.
With some simple craft supplies and a few last minute pregnancy sewing sessions, I was able to make her this simple mobile for a fraction of the price of others I’d found. I also liked the idea of making her a special piece from me for her nursery.
I’ve only just started putting Lucy down for naps in her crib during the day, and letting her sleep beside us in the bassinet at night. So far she has been okay in her crib, especially when her little bunnies are dancing around in the breeze from her windows.
Seeing that sweet little smile when she watches the bunnies, just melts my heart!
I went with three different designs of bunnies – standing, leaping and sitting – with oh so cute little cotton tails.
I got the inspiration for the bunny designs from some of the little cupcake picks at the Beatrix Potter Baby Shower. You can see one of the yellow ones on the top tier.
My favourite part just might be their sweet little smiles!
What you’ll need:
- felt in several colours
- matching thread
- black embroidery thread
- poly-fil stuffing
- white pom-poms
- 14″ wooden embroidery hoop
- fabric strips
- string
For each bunny, you need two sets of the body and two sets of ears. I traced the shape from paper onto the felt and cut with sharp scissors.
Stitch the faces onto both of the body pieces on one side each, using an embroidery needle and two strands of black embroidery thread. Afterwards, place the two body pieces together for each bunny, with faces facing outwards. Sew a blanket stitch with coordinating thread all the way around, leaving a small opening on the back for stuffing and an opening at the top of the head for the ears.
Placing two ear pieces together, do a blanket stitch all the way around.
Stuff the bunny with poly-fil, pin the ears and place and continue to blanket stitch to finish.
For the pom-pom tails, I cut the poms off of leftover trim from making the valances in the nursery. (more on how I made those next week).
Using thread, stitch the pom-pom onto the bunny’s bottom.
For this mobile, I made two of the pink bunnies, two of the blue and three of the tan.
To make the hanging loop, remove the outer circle of a wooden embroidery hoop, and use just the inner circle. You can paint the hoop or glue fabric on it like I did. I cut strips of fabric scraps I had on hand and hot glued them around the loop.
Now it’s time to add the strings! I found this ball of string in my craft supplies that wasn’t as thick as twine but not as soft as embroidery thread.
I used a lamp to help me get the strings right while I attached them. I tied a string from one side of the loop to the other, and another string on the opposing sides to make a large “x”. Then I attached a third string from the center of the “x”, going upwards. This is what the mobile will hanging from the ceiling from. To attach the bunnies, I thread a string from the bottom of each bunny, upthrough the bodies and left the string coming up the top to attach to the hoop. I hung each bunny around 7″ from the hoop.
When hanging the mobile from the ceiling, I used a hook with an anchor to make sure the mobile wouldn’t fall from the ceiling. Then I tied the top mobile string to the hoop and slowly lowered it down until it was high enough that the baby can’t pull it down, but low enough that she can still see it moving around.
You could use this same idea to make any kind of felt figure mobile – farm animals, zoo animals, birds, butterflies, clouds and raidrops!
So very sweet, nicely done! You should sell these on Etsy.