Felted Wool Ball Baby Mobile

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This project has only been on my list since, oh, January?  February?  Before Baby N was born.  His three-week-early surprise threw a kink into some, uhm… kay, many of my plans.  I finally sat down on a Sunday afternoon and got this done.

I saw felted balls for the first time back around Christmastime.  I was very intrigued, especially with the texture.  I started looking into them and found that they aren’t cheap.  Then I found you can make them yourself.  I almost went that route and even had the Wool Roving in my Amazon cart.  And then I found ornamentea,com.  They had felt balls on clearance.  There wasn’t a huge selection, but their clearance prices were fantastic.  And I really didn’t want to make my own felt balls anyway.  So, I decided to go with two packages of the pre-made balls in natural colors and greens.  It looks like they are doing a closeout sale and only have the natural ones left, but they are 50 pieces for $4.  That’s a huge deal.

– Ribbon
– Hot Glue Gun & Glue Sticks
– Needle & Thread
– Scissors

Directions:
– You will only be using the solid embroidery hoop, so pull it out and set the adjustable one aside.
– Wrap your ribbon around the hoop and secure with hot glue.  I chose a wide, silky green ribbon to compliment the colors of my felt balls.

– Thread the needle and tie a knot in the end.  Push the needle through the ribbon on the inside of the hoop until it hits the knot.
– Push a felt ball onto the needle and up the thread until it is near the hoop.  Tie a small knot in the thread to keep the felt ball from sliding back down the thread.

– Repeat the last step until you have as many felt balls on your string as you desire.  I did anywhere from 3-5 balls and varied the lengths of the strings.
– Repeat the last three steps all the way around the hoop.
–  With hot glue, attach one end of a 10″ length of ribbon to the inside of one side of the hoop and wrap it down and back up over the hoop to make a handle.  Attach the other end of the ribbon to the opposite side of the hoop the same way.

– Repeat the last step perpendicularly to the ribbon you just attached.  Hang in a safe place and enjoy.

*My older boys want nothing more than to hit the strings of balls as hard as they can and watch them fly all over the place.  This would be a huge, tangled disaster and makes me want to cry just thinking about it.  So, this is NOT a toy and could pose a choking hazard for small children or anyone silly enough to put felt balls in their mouth.  If it’s simply decor to “look at with your eyes and not with your hands,” you’ll be fine.