Over The Moon

With a new baby on the way there is a lot to get ready!

One thing I was really excited about was the baby mobile. I looked at a lot of different ones and nothing was quite exactly what I wanted to go in the nursery. There were pieces of a lot of different ones I liked, but that would require buying them all and then patching it together. So… I decided to make my own!

It wasn’t as hard as I was worried it would be.

In fact, it was pretty easy!

I used my old baby mobile as my template. 

(Just to get an idea on how to size things- I didn't actually take it apart. Those are memories!)

Isn’t it so sweet? My mom made it for me when I was a baby.

So for my little guy’s mobile I cut out all the pieces that I wanted.

For the moon I just used a cereal bowl that would give me the size that I wanted (including a ½ inch seam allowance) and traced it onto paper to make my pattern. Then I did a crescent using the same bowl out of my circle pattern. Ta-da! 

The yellow fabric that I wanted for the moon was a bit thin and you could see the blue through it. So I ironed on some transfer backing and that did the trick! It also made my moon more sturdy. 

To put the finishing touches on the moon I just did a zigzag stitch to attach the round blue circle to my yellow crescent. I think it made a nice moon glow effect. Sew right sides together, turn right side out, stuff, and stitch seal.

The stars were the easiest. I just cut out a star on a piece of paper and then applied that to all the fabric that I wanted to create my little stars out of. Sew right sides together, turn right side out, stuff, and stitch seal. I was on a roll by the third star!

Then came my cow. 

Well, I didn’t have a cow yet. 

I was trying to figure out how to make one. 

But I wanted him to be 3D and not a flat cow (I know, I'm picky)…. 

I found a few patterns but I would seriously have to shrink them down. 

So I got thinking… what if our cow got tired trying to jump over the moon? Maybe he needed a little help?

And that is how our cow decided to catch a ride on an airplane. 

(Fitting since Hubby was a “flyboy” in college and has his pilot’s license).

Then it came down to finding a pattern for an airplane that a cow could “ride” on. This little How-To pattern at Craftzine worked perfectly for what I needed!

Print the airplane pattern, (I used the first airplane size) cut out the fabric, sew right sides together, flip right side out, stuff, stitch closed. (Seeing a pattern here? Haha)

The cool thing about the fabric for the airplane is my mom got it when she was my age in the Smokey Mountains! It was the last bit of some scraps she had in her sewing desk (where I rummaged around for most of the material used in this project). It’s a lovely soft flannel, just perfect for our baby cow to catch a ride on.

The baby cow himself came from Amazon. Haha. Trying to sew together a 2-½ inch cow was more ambitious than I felt like being for this project. He’s got little magnets in his “hooves” and tummy, so he can hold on to the plane all on his own (with a little safety stitch for good measure).

To put all the finished pieces together I used ribbon. I decided to go with a nice yellow ribbon, you know, like moon beams. 

I didn't really measure how long each ribbon piece should be, I just guessed at it based off of where I thought they would look good. To attach the ribbon to the stuffed pieces I just did a simple square stitch and tied it off with a surgeons knot wherever the ribbon attached to the pieces.

To hang it up I made a ribbon loop and attached it to the top of the moon, since the moon was going to be my first stuffed piece. I did this with the same square stitch and surgeon knot. 

Here it is all pretty and put together! 

I’m pretty darn happy with the way it turned out! It’s exactly what I wanted for our little guy.

Sweet dreams!