Rainbow Fairy Mobile

Look up and you may see a magical rainbow arcing across the sky. And, if you’re really lucky, you may see rainbow fairies playing in the colors.

This mobile was a collaborative project with my niece. I put it together as a gift which she loved after expecting a handful of colorful fairies.

Our first step was choosing the colors. We laid out different combinations before cutting any patterns. She liked softer versions of color, leaning towards lavender rather than deep purple. With this palette, red didn’t quite fit with the other colors. A bold pink fit far better in our fairy rainbow. Color choices were a good conversation about planning because laying them out together before cutting meant that we had flexibility when we changed our minds about one shade or another.

We also checked on the petal colors while choosing felt. It turned out that we had very few orange petals. For some reason, our orange/yellow collection was smaller than the other colors. So we opted to combine orange & yellow into one fairy.

We first cut the hats and dresses. She sewed the hats. We encountered a challenge with wings because she wanted the wings to match and I didn’t have perfectly matched wire ribbon in all the colors of the rainbow.

At this moment, I let her think about potential solutions- which is a fantastic learning opportunity for children. I could have said, “Oh, we can cut wings,” but it was a perfect opportunity for her to consider options. And weigh feasibility. Dying ribbon? Whelp, I didn’t have dye either. It took some time before cutting wings was offered. And, again, I could have said, “Great, let’s get a pattern,” but instead I asked her how we could do that. And she decided she wanted to design her own wings. I showed her the patterns that we use for Bumblebee and Love Fairies. She thought about it and decided she wanted her own shape.

So I told her how we design wings by thinking about the shape, then making sure the shape has enough thickness to connect in the back. We draw half of the wings on paper, fold, then cut it to see if the size and shape works before using felt. It took a few tries for her design to “work”. The first was too small and another with lots of little details. We also talk about material because things that look great on paper won’t work on felt. Especially craft-quality felt doesn’t hold little zig-zags or edging very well.

After her paper wings passed the “testing phase” with paper, we cut out a set of wings and tried it to see how it worked. Perfect!

My photo collection doesn’t have a great perspective from the back of a fairy to see her wing design, but hopefully, this one shares the idea of her wing shapes. We did need to adjust a little because the felt didn’t hold the shape that well (wool felt would have been better for these wings because it holds shapes better but, by this phase, we had already sewn hats).

We decided to mix a rainbow yarn with white yard (like clouds) to give continuity between the fairies. I use floral wire, which is quite soft and easy to bend, to create the mobile’s frame. The last step is that I give each end of the wire a swirl, and a loop on a fairy’s hat, so they can be removed for play. It’s a lovely decoration that invites creative play. After all, what could be more fun that watching rainbow fairies fly overhead? Playing with them!

Wishing you plenty of fairy magic today! And rainbows too 🌈