DIY Bird Mobile Assembly

Late Tuesday night I decided to begin assembling the bird mobile together and since a thunderstorm came right as my husband was headed out back to sit around a fire with his friend Jackson, I was able to snag him for his engineering smarts (which I knew I'd need).

This mobile looks simple enough, but it takes some balancing talent.

You will need:

your hand-sewn birds (See this post for bird patterns and tutorial)

branches

hot glue or thread and needle

fishing line

eye hooks (about 2 per branch)

drill and tiny drill bit

doorway (or some place to hang your mobile during assembly)

patience...

First, pick out the branches you will use and begin placing the birds wherever you want on the branches. Some who've made this mobile sewed the birds in place, but I, wanting to keep things quick and easy, decided to use my hot glue gun.

Then, decide how you want to hang your branches...having a partner helps!

Once you've decided how you want your branches to hang the hard part begins...

Start from the bottom branch and find the fulcrum(or balancing point) as best you can by balancing on your finger.

Once you've established the balancing point on the branch, drill a small hole for the eye hook.

Tightly insert the eye hook and thread with fishing line. The length of the fishing line will determine how close or far you'd like the next branch to be.

Continue with the other branches as you did with the first, noting that the weight of neighboring branches will affect where the fulcrum is. You won't have one continuous piece of fishing line, rather, separate pieces connect each branch. Each branch will also have two eye hooks, one on top and one on bottom (with the exception of the bottom branch). 

Don't get discouraged if you've assembled the whole mobile and your branches aren't hanging straight. We had to move eye hooks around numerous times before we got it just right.

There is no way I could've figured this out with my husband Steven! He is the bird mobile master and the best husband ever! I seriously would've thrown the branches across our dining room in frustration if I had gone at this alone!

Isn't it lovely?!

Yea you guessed it, that's a blanket backdrop!

I am so thrilled with how this mobile turned out! If you're worried about not being able to figure the balancing out, just give it a try! We almost resorted to using two strands of fishing line between each branch to help them hang straight, which still would've looked great, but would inhibit the separate limbs from being able to turn individually, which is so neat!

I can't wait to show you pictures of the mobile hanging above Finn's crib in the finished nursery!

Linking to Home Stories A 2 Z & What Allie's Making Now