Mindful makes: Free raindrop cloud mobile tutorial!
Published on 5 February 2020 By Holly Butteriss 1 min read
Feeling a little blue? Clare Youngs' The Mindful Maker is packed with beautiful crafts to soothe the soul, including this fab little raindrop cloud mobile. Even during dark skies, there's always the joy of making!
I do love hand stitching. It is one of the most relaxing mindful crafts and when the result is this charming hanging decoration, it’s all good! For this mindful project it is nice to go your own way, draw your own template, make it up as you go along, like stitch doodling! I have sewn mine together with a sewing machine, but if you don’t have one or you don’t want to use one, the felt can be stitched together by hand.
Materials
- Tracing paper and pencil
- Scissors
- Pins
- Felt in three colors: 7 1⁄2 x 7 in. (19 x 18 cm) for the cloud 5 1⁄2 x 8 3⁄4 in. (14 x 22 cm) for the bird 4 3⁄4 x 10 1⁄4 in. (12 x 26 cm) for the tree
- Six-stranded embroidery floss (thread)
- Needle
- Air- or heat-erasable pen
1
Transfer the templates for the cloud, bird, and tree onto paper, then cut them out and pin them to the felt. Cut two of each shape.
2
To embroider the raindrops onto the cloud use all six strands of the embroidery floss (thread). The drops are made using bullion knots, stitched in rows and spaced about ¾ in. (1.5 cm) apart.
3
Cut out the shape for the bird design from the bird template and place it on the cut-out felt shape. Pin in position, leaving a border around the edge, then draw around this with an air-or heat-erasable pen. You can either stitch the design freehand or use your chosen method of transfer to place the design on the fabric. I used two strands of embroidery floss (thread) and a combination of detached chain stitch, bullion knots and straight stitches.
4
For the tree, I used all six strands of embroidery floss (thread), doubled up to give 12 strands. The design is simply straight stitches randomly placed, at different angles.
5
Pin the felt shapes together in their pairs. Either use a sewing machine to stitch them together, stitching about ¼ in. (5 mm) in from the edge, or hand stitch together using a small overstitch all the way around.
6
Thread a needle with some embroidery floss (thread) and tie a knot at the end. Starting at the centre bottom of the tree, take the needle in between the two pieces of felt. Come out at the centre of the back section, take a small stitch and carry on up through to the centre top of the tree. Continue through the bird and the cloud in the same way.
7
Even out the thread between the pieces—I left a 1 in. (2.5 cm) gap. Make a loop by bringing the needle back to where the thread emerges from the centre of the cloud. Secure with a few stitches. Lose the end of the thread by taking the needle into the middle and coming out on the back a few millimeters down from the top. Snip off the end of the thread.
So you never run out of mindful makes, buy The Mindful Maker from MAKEetc.com for $24.19 + postage.
Photography by Joanna Henderson CICO Books.
