Butterfly Mobile

A few weeks ago I posted a DIY tutorial making origami butterflies and today, I'm posting an idea of what you can create with these simple and pretty paper decorations - a butterfly mobile.

What I Used:

Origami Paper Butterflies

Embroidery Hoop

Needle / Thread / Scissors

To start, you need to thread your butterflies that will allow them to hang in a position that makes them look like they are flying, rather than rocketing vertically or dive-bombing once hung.  After a little trial and error, I found that threading my needle 1/3 from the top of each wing achieved this, but have a little test before threading all your butterflies.  To create the hanging, I started threading from the underside of one wing and through to the top:

.....over to the opposite wing and threading through the top to the underside:

...bringing the needle back to the top center of the butterfly and not pulling the thread too taut:

...before looping the thread to tie a loose knot in the center of the wings:

...remove the needle and keep the length of thread long for hanging later.
Repeat this with all your butterflies [I used 7 to create my mobile]:

Once complete, they can be attached to the embroidery hoop.  At this stage, just the inner hoop is needed and I decided to go for a spiral effect, starting the first butterfly with a long length of thread to hang and with each butterfly, for the hanging thread to get progressively shorter.  Secure each butterfly with a knot and to hide this once hanging, place the knot on the outside of the inner hoop:

Finally, ties need to be made to hang the mobile.  I attached four lengths of thread at each quarter of the inner hoop [again, hiding the knot on the outside], bringing the threads to the center, checking they hung the hoop evenly and then brought them together with a secure knot:

Once completed, I added the outer hoop, hiding the knots and secured and tightened the frame:

The mobile is now ready to hang and as it is incredibly lightweight, this can be pretty much anywhere and a push pin will hold it securely in place if you don't have a hook or nail already in place.

Vary the sizes, colours, patterns and papers to create different effects to suit your space and decor.

have a great weekend and see you next time x

P.S!
Don't forget to enter TTSM craft post giveaway - you can win the materials needed to recreate any TTSM craft post you fancy - maybe this one?  Enter here!

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