Thursday, July 21, 2011

Crochet a Baby Mobile



Not a difficult project to make if you are familiar with making Amigurumi's (small crocheted toys).

First I had to select a few dolls to make and a color scheme, nice and bright to catch baby's eye's.
You can do a google search for many free crochet Amigurumi.

I found the 2 on the out side at this site for free, called sleepy sarah, the little girl was found else where, can't recall where right now.

Ella Phant was made from the pattern book, Amigurumi World.
Mona Key was made from the same pattern book. Not their names in the pattern book, I just made the names up for fun.

At this stage I was thinking about the construction of the mobile.
I knew I had some wooden hangers to use and tried to visualize the hanging of the dolls, it was then that I thought of it's balance! I did plan to make more dolls for the mobile but I was now, more aware of the space I had to use and how to balance the dolls.
I put the largest 2 at the very top.

Then the matching pair on the center hanger.

Then the single doll on the bottom hanger.
But before I attached the dolls to the hanger I crocheted a plain white cover for them.
I now needed the final touch and crocheted some colored cork screws to go in between the blank spaces. There is a you tube tutorial on how to make these.

My plan was coming together. I used clear plastic line to attach the dolls to the coat hanger, being careful of the balance of the whole thing.


I'm really happy with the out come and baby Cindy now 4 weeks old seems to look at it, once she has her eye sight fully focused I am sure she will spend many hours admiring her mobile. The whole project will take you a relaxed week of crocheting if you choose to make one for your self.
My little girl is growing.

If you crochet over a hanger, just make the chain about 1 inch longer than the hanger.
Once I made the row height for one facing of the coat hanger, I crocheted into the back loops of the next row to get a turning seam.
 My next side was done and I needed to crochet into the front loops for the next turning seam.
 I repeated alternating front loop and back loop for the turning edges and I closed it up with a simple slip stitch then inserted the hanger and sewed the ends closed.

Amigurumi is made in a circle with a sc and rounds are not joined, there is lots of counting to do and a stitch marker is your best friend to avoid mistakes. Below you can see an abacus that I use for counting, it also doubles up as a pattern book holder, very handy.
 
Amigurumi World Pattern Book.