Baby Turtle recently graduated from the bassinet to her crib. We never intended for her to sleep in it until she was a bit older, but she was out growing the bassinet way too fast. I didn't get her a mobile for the crib for that reason. I wanted to be able to find the "perfect" one and buy it. So doing some research, the "perfect" one was crazy expensive! Like $40 to $90+ expensive. So with the help of some Pinterest, I decided to make my own for half the price. I used three pins combined to create my own piece. One for the layout, pattern, and structure.
I didn't get a chance to sit down and knock this project out in a few hours. Baby Turtle wouldn't have it. I ended up fitting this project in between naps and after Baby Turtle went to bed over the span of a week. The only thing I waited for Hubby to be able to watch her for was the parts that involved the hot glue gun. I didn't want to risk a) accidently leaving it on if she were to have woken up b) get halfway though a hoop and have her wake up c) hot glue and babies don't mix! I think if I were to total all the time I spent, it would be about 8-10 hours. Maybe? I stopped and started a lot since Baby Turtle doesn't have a real set nap schedule yet. Naps last anywhere from 15 mins to 3 hours, depending on her mood.
This DIY project is fairly low cost compared to the customizable ones you find on Etsy. I pictured the materials I purchased (all for about $13) and the non-pictured items I list are things I had at home.
Materials:
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| 2 Embroidery Hoops. I used a 12" and a 7". You will only need the solid wood part, not the part with the hardware on it. (Keep it though! I plan on testing out another DIY with that part so money and materials aren't wasted) |
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| Embroidery Floss, use colors that coordinate with the felt. I got pink, grey and cream. |
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| 1/3 yard each of pink, grey and white felt. (I got mine at Jo-Ann) *If you can, get felt sheets instead. I learned that 1/3 yd of felt was just excessive and I only used about 1/8 of each sheet* |
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| Matching Yarn (I used pink) and white thread |
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| (Optional) elephant hole punch, I borrowed this from a friend |
Cardstock
Sharpie
Tape
Hot glue gun & sticks
Large needle
(optional) Stuffing
(optional) grey cardstock
Directions:
-part one-
1. Make your stencils. I free-handed my shapes, cut them out and taped the flap closed. You'll need the elephant shape, ears, and clouds.
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| you can tell I was quite indecisive about my shape :) |
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| To save paper and get a good proportion for the ears, I used the elephant cut out as the stencil |
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| Ta-Da! |
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| I decided to make 3 different cloud shapes to add some dimension to the overall look |
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| Note how I traced elephants and hearts facing one way and vice versa? |
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| This was the moment that I realized 1/3 yd felt was WAY too much. This took up *maybe* 1/8 of the whole strip of fabric. |
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| Even though I had made 3 different clouds in my stencil, I decided that the two larger ones would look better than all three. Get creative! |
3. Sew the hearts onto the elephants using the embroidery floss that is the color of the elephant. I alternated the colors (grey elephant with pink heart, pink elephant with grey heart). Make sure that for every two pieces of elephant, you sew the heart on the opposite side. (they will eventually get sewn together and you want the hearts facing outwards.) Use the same colored thread to make the eyes. I made a simple X, but you can be as creative or non-creative as you want :)
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| I used scissors to stuff my ears. Totally optional, but I think it adds more dimension to the overall piece. |
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| Close up of the finishing stiches |
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| This is what the back side of one side of the elephant looks like. |
4. Sew the elephants together. I had leftover stuffing from a pillow I made, so I used it to give my elephants some dimension. I laid some stuffing inside before starting to sew. At the end, before I closed it up, I checked the stuffing and added as needed.
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| Finished elephant nose on |
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| Finished elephant side view |
5. Sew the hearts together using the same colored embroidery floss. Stuffing is optional.
6. Sew the clouds together using the cream embroidery floss. Stuffing is optional.
7. Now you should have 3 pink elephants, 3 grey elephants, 2 pink hearts, 2 grey hearts and 10 clouds. Set these aside.
-part two-
1. Take the embroidery hoops and separate the pieces. You only need the solid wood pieces.
2. Carefully put some hot glue on the inner rim and start wrapping the yarn around. Take your time, wrapping the yard very tightly. Also be careful, the hot glue is, well, hot. :)
3. Wrap both hoops in yarn.
-part three (optional)-
1. Cut out lots of elephant shapes using grey paper. I would use pink and grey, but the hoops are already pink. I didn't want it to be overkill on the pink. I just cut as many as I could on one 8"x11" piece of grey paper. I punched around the entire border of the paper, cut the outlines out and continued on until there was no more paper.
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| I hope this shows what I mean in the instructions :) |
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| Elephants!! |
1. String some thread through the felt shapes. Tie knots at the top and bottom of each shape to keep them in place. Be as creative as you want with where you want the shapes to be :)
2. Tie them onto the hoop. You can get a ruler and measure it, but I just eye-balled it with no problems. I put the elephants on the larger ring and the hearts on the smaller ring.
3. I used some yarn and tied the two hoops together, keeping the smaller hoop slight lower.
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| I took 4 equal pieces and tied them all together in a knot on top |
5. If you did part three, use a small dab of glue and place them on the hoops.
6. ALL DONE! Hang and enjoy!
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| The Finished Product! |
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| The Finished Product! |
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| this is what baby turtle will see lol. should've made them more 3-D |
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