How to make a mobile: kites tutorial

How to make a mobile: kites tutorial

Make these kites in bright colours and co-ordinate the ribbons on the tails for a lightweight breezy decoration. This project was designed by Sammy Claridge from Sew Crafty.

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Published: November 17, 2019 at 10:10 pm

It's a taster of our fat quarter projects in Simply Sewing magazine, which are great for beginners.

You will need

  • Cotton fabric: four fat eighths or scrap
  • Bondaweb: 50cm (20in)
  • Heavy weight iron-on interfacing: 25cm (10in)
  • Monofilament
  • Bakers twine: 3m (120in)
  • Ribbon: 1.5cm (5/8in) width, short lengths
  • Embroidery hoop: 25cm (10in) diameter
  • Air erasable marker pen
  • Basic sewing kit

All materials available at Sew Crafty.

Notes

Before you begin, download our Free kite template (PDF). Scroll down to get sewing your mobile!

How to make a kite mobile

Step-by-step: how to make a mobile

Step one: Iron the interfacing onto the back of all of the fabric scraps. Iron a layer of bondaweb over the top of the interfacing with the paper side up.

STEP (1).jpg
STEP (1).jpg

Step two: Remove the paper backing then fold one piece of fabric in half and iron again to stick all the layers together and create a fabric sandwich. Draw round the template with erasable marker and cut out.

Step three: Repeat steps 1 and 2 to create each kite.

Step four: Cut a 15cm (6in) length of bakers twine and four ribbon scraps. Tie a knot in the ribbons around the bakers twine to make little bows, spacing them evenly along the length of twine. Snip off any excess ribbon to neaten. Tie a knot in each end of the bakers twine.

How to make a mobile step 3

Step five: Repeat step 4 to create a tail for each kite.

How to make a kite mobile step 5

Step six: Sew one end of the tail to the longer point on the kite.

How to make a kite mobile step 6

Step seven: Sew all the way around the edge of the kite, 5mm (14in) in, to keep all the layers together permanently.

How to make a kite mobile step 7

Step eight: Tie two 75cm (30in) lengths of bakers twine to your hoop, crossing over in the middle to create a loop for hanging.

How to make a kite mobile step 8

Step nine: Sew 20-25cm (8-10in) lengths of monofilament to the three top corners of each kite.

Step ten: Tie each kite in place on hoop where the bakers twine is knotted to it.

How to make a kite mobile step 10