A mobile not only looks cute, but also serves a purpose—or even several. First of all, a mobile can relax and calm your child. The gentle movements and the recognition of the shapes and colors bring peace, comfort, and security.
Furthermore, it stimulates babies' sensory perception. Young children perceive the mobile visually, tactilely, and even acoustically, for example, if bells are attached. When the baby tries to reach for the mobile, their motor skills are trained. If the mobile is stable and placed low enough, touching and feeling the materials will also lead to improved coordination and tactile development. Please also note our notes at the end of this article.
Making a mobile: Making it yourself is much more fun
Of course, you can buy any mobile imaginable, but it's much more fun to make one yourself for your most precious treasure. In this case, you can also be sure that you're using only the best, most sustainable, and truly vegan materials.
Since sustainability and the environment are particularly important to us, we have put together three vegan ideas for making a baby mobile below.
Mobile made from fabric scraps and straw
Get a metal or wooden ring with a diameter of up to 30 centimeters. Next, take a piece of fabric or felt and cut out two equally sized cloud outlines. Now sew the edges of the two pieces together 75% of the way through, fill the cloud with straw, coconut fiber, other fabric scraps, or even dried herbs like chamomile flowers, and sew it completely shut.
Next, attach a natural cord to the cloud and tie it to the metal or wooden ring. Make 5 to 10 clouds of different sizes and attach them to the ring at different heights. Add a bell here and there for an additional acoustic effect. Attach four longer pieces of cord to the ring itself and hang everything from a hook under the ceiling or a bracket attached to the bed.
Mobile made from natural branches
Find two (or more) nice, gnarled branches in the forest and dry them thoroughly. Remove the bark and sand it down. Finally, treat the branches with a little olive oil and tie them together crosswise with jute twine. If you want to use more than two branches, tie three branches together crosswise, for example. Ideally, all the branches should be different lengths and thicknesses—it simply looks prettier in the end.
Now take the first cross and attach a cord to its center, for example, to attach the mobile to a ceiling hook. Now take the second three-part cross made of branches and hang it in the center below the first cross, about 15 centimeters apart. In the final step, you can attach various items to the branches, such as colorful balls of fabric, small stuffed animals, homemade cardboard suns, moons, and stars, handmade sheep, filled hearts made of natural cotton, hand-painted wooden figures, or anything else you can think of.
Crafting with vegan wool
There's now a huge selection of non-animal-based yarns that can be used like wool. Some even resemble velvet or super-soft cashmere. You can make cute stuffed animals out of vegan wool and then attach them to the mobile.
Fairy Tale Mobile
You can also tell an entire story with a mobile. The best way to do this is to use two differently sized wooden or metal rings, which you connect at a distance of 15 to 30 centimeters using cord, jute, or metal link chains. The larger ring should be on top and the smaller one on the bottom.
Now you'll create a series of objects and characters from your favorite fairy tale. Let's take Hansel and Gretel as an example: From cardboard, wood, or even sewn and stuffed pieces, make several trees, fir trees, a small house, a stove, Hansel, Gretel, a wolf, Grandma, and a basket. Hang everything at irregular heights on the two rings with string. This way, you can bring any kind of fairy tale or story to life beautifully and uniquely.
FAQ about baby mobiles:
Finally, we have collected some questions and answers about mobiles for babies for you:
Where can you hang a baby mobile?
Two places are particularly suitable for a baby mobile. At the crib, the mobile helps lull the child into a sense of security and comfort. The movement soothes the child and helps them sleep better.
At the changing table, the distraction provided by a mobile is particularly useful, as otherwise the child quickly becomes bored and cries. A mobile helps calm the child and makes changing diapers quick and easy.
At what age is a baby mobile useful?
Definitely from the first day of life. Babies are able to perceive nearby objects from the very first day. A low-hanging mobile in bright colors can therefore bring joy and comfort to a baby from a very early age.
Should the height be adjusted?
If the baby can stand up or develops greater strength, they could tear the mobile off, and heavy parts could injure the child. Therefore, it's best to hang the mobile a little higher every now and then so the baby can admire it but can't reach it.
Have fun making your first baby mobile
We hope you enjoyed our crafting tips and that the mobile will bring your child lots of joy. Speaking of joy – if you want to give yourself and your little one a completely different kind of joy, just browse our shop and check out our vegan booties and fairly produced, practical baby clothes .
One last tip: Crocheting is totally trendy. So how about a mobile featuring only hand-crocheted figures filled with wild herbs? Your imagination is the limit.
