How to: Make a Felt Butterfly Mobile

Time for another butterfly-themed how-to, based on the butterfly template I have finally uploaded here. Today: how to make a simple but striking butterfly mobile from felt.

 

 
You will need:

- colourful felt,
- white yarn
- felt beads
- a piece of strong card,
- two large paper doilies.

The felt beads and doilies are optional, and if you don't have any felt you can just use sturdy coloured paper (e.g. sugar/construction paper) or thin card.

The construction of this mobile is nice and simple - four strands of butterflies, suspended from a card circle.

Cut out lots of butterfly shapes from your felt using the butterfly template. You can keep these as single sided butterflies or cut out two shapes per butterfly and sew them together with matching thread to make them more sturdy (the single ones will be more likely to flop!). Alternatively, you could just use card.

In between my felt butterflies I threaded some fantastic felt beads, but small circles of felt/paper (about 1 inch in diameter) would work just as well.

 

To make each strand, cut a long piece of white knitting yarn and knot one end.

Using a darning needle, sew about three stitches through the middle of each felt butterfly, leaving enough room between them to let them spin easily and mixing up the butterflies and felt beads/circles as you go.

You might want to spread out all your materials on a large surface like a table to get a good mix of colours and shapes before you start.

If you're making your mobile using paper butterflies, use an ordinary sewing needle and white sewing thread.

To make the "base" from which the mobile hangs, I used a paper doily as a template to cut out a piece of stiff corrugated card.

Using a very sharp pencil, I punched four holes in the circle of card. Imagine the circle is a compass and make one hole at north, south, east and west. Each hole should be about an inch in from the edge.

I then glued one doily onto each side of the card to make it more attractive and cover the holes. You could use any kind of paper for this - a dinner plate makes a great template for cutting out a large circle!

Thread one of the strands of yarn through one of the holes - you should be able to feel through the paper where one of the holes is, and pierce through easily with the needle (the rest will be much easier to find when you've found the first one!).

Make sure the butterflies are hanging at the height you want them, and loop the yarn through the hole several times and tie a knot. Do not cut the yarn at this point! Repeat this for the other three strands.

Now take all four loose bits of yarn and hold the ends together until the card circle is level and the mobile is hanging straight, tie a knot in them (knotting all 4 together) and use them to hang your mobile wherever you fancy.

If you've used paper butterflies and sewing thread, once you've secured each strand to the circle you can trim the remaining thread and tie on 4 lengths of knitting yarn for suspending the mobile.

Remember - as with all mobiles - to hang it well out of the reach of babies and small children! The design will fade over time if hung in direct sunlight.

 
This tutorial is for non commercial use only: you can use it for as many mobiles as you like for yourself or as gifts for friends but please don't make any for sale. Please feel free to blog about this project, but remember to credit me and link back to the original source, and do not reproduce my tutorial on your site. Thanks!

Enjoyed this free tutorial? Buy me a "coffee" and help support my blog!


Subscribe to my newsletter for a monthly free pattern and visit my crafty tutorial archive for lots more free projects.

Visit my shop to buy my printable PDF sewing patterns: