Since the moment we knew we would get a baby I knew I wanted to make something fun for the baby to play with. After some thought I ended up with this idea for the dinosaur baby mobile. It took some time before I started, so in the 2 weeks we hoped where the last 2 weeks of the pregnancy I was quite busy making sure it was finished in time.

During the build I was constantly guitar-humming (making guitar sounds) the famous lullaby of Brahms. At some point my wife called me a guitar-dinosaur I quickly named the Ploinkosaurus. So as a small side-project I had to make a drawing of the Ploinkosaurus.

In this Instructable you'll find all the step necessary to create dinosaurs or other animals of your own design. If you like my design, I've included the patterns of all 5 dinosaurs, the flower and leaves. If you decide to make a dinosaur of my design, or some other animal of your own design using my Instructable, please consider sharing the results in the comments using 'I made it'.

Step 1: Make the Patterns

This is how I made all the patterns for my dinosaurs. If you like my designs, you can skip this step and download the patterns attached to this step.

Start by drawing all the dinosaurs you like to sew in 2D (side view) to make sure they all have the same style and will match once you've made them.
Turn the drawing into patterns, only the outline of 3D bodies is necessary, decorations/details will come later. We do this because we only want to test the shape of the dinosaurs. This means, draw them to scale and add seam allowance. These 3D bodies include the body itself and additional 3D-shapes, such as legs, the wings of Peter the Pterodactyl and the collar of Trix the Triceratops.
Sew a draft, stuff it, and tweak the designs where necessary.
When satisfied with the draft, transfer the design onto pattern paper to finalize the pattern.

Step 2: Sew the Dinosaurs

This step explains the normal process to sew the dinosaur. Keep in mind that most dinosaurs have some sort of deviation from this process. Please don't hesitate to ask questions when something is not clear and I'll do my best to help you with the steps.

Trace and cut all the parts.
Machine sew the body and the belly separately.
Cut back the seam allowance to approximately 2mm.
Finish the seams. There are several options for this:
- Leave as is.
- Add decorative stitching to the machine stitches.
- Turn inside out without adding decorative stitching.
- Turn inside out and add decorative stitching.
- Etc.
Stuff the body with stuffing.
Using decorative stitching, sew the belly to the body. Before closing the body, make sure there is enough stuffing inside.
Sew all the additional 3D bodies, follow sub-steps 1 to 5 for this.
Close the body using a slip stitch. (I let my wife do this because I was messing it up :D)
Using decorative stitching, sew all additional 3D bodies to the body.
Using decorative stitching, add the remaining body parts such as spots.
Depending on the type of eyes you use, add the eyes to the body.
Using the thread used for the decorative stitching, attach some sort of loop for hanging it to the mobile.

Step 3: Decorate Hanging Bracket

We wanted the mobile to be able to make music, so we bought the cheapest baby mobile we could find. This included a bracket to hang the mobile from when mounted on a crib. Since the bracket and music box were quite ugly, we decided on decorating them in the same style.

Leaves:

Machine sew the stalk, then trace and cut it.
Trace and cut the leaves.
Machine sew the leaves, leave the stalk side open.
Cut back the seam allowance to approximately 2mm.
Finish the seams.
Close the leaves with the stalk in place using a slip stitch.

Flower:

Trace and cut the petals ans sepal.
Hand sew the three separate petals into a tapered tube and insert the stamen.
Sew the three petals together with the pointy side of the petals on the outside.
Hand sew the full ring and half ring of petals together to form a longer ring.
Roll the ring of petals around the three center petals and hand sew together.
Hand sew the petals of the outer petal together to form a cup shape.
Hand sew outer petal and the sepal to the rest of the flower.

Tree trunk:

Sew a large tapering tube to go over the bracket, this will form a 'tree trunk'.
Cut back the seam allowance to approximately 2mm.
Finish the seams the same you did the dinosaur bodies.
Put the 'tree trunk' over the bracket.
Optionally add stuffing and close the 'tree trunk'.
Machine sew several leaves (and flowers).
Turn the leaves (and flowers) correct side out and add decorative stitching.
Add stuffing and close the leaves (and flowers) using a slip stitch.
Using decorative stitching, add the leaves and flowers to the 'tree trunk'

Twigs:

Add a 'trunk', leaves (and flowers) to the horizontal beams to make them look like twigs.

Woodblock:

Cut two circles the size of the music box.
Machine sew year rings on the circles.
Machine sew 'bark' to both of the circles.
Place the two halves on the music box and (slip) stitch them together.
Using decorative stitching, add a broken branch to the side.
During all steps, keep in mind the controls of the music box such as the winding and on/off mechanisms.

Step 4: Assemble

Mount the tree trunk to the crib.
Hang the music woodblock from the tree trunk.
Hang the twigs from the music woodblock.
Add a thread/wire from the twigs to the dinosaurs to hang them.
Enjoy your newly made baby mobile.
Give birth / Support your wife during giving birth. (Depends on who you are.)
Put the baby under the dinosaurs.
Enjoy again while you baby looks at and plays with the dinosaurs.

Tip:

If you made too many dinosaurs, mount them somewhere else as decoration. As you can see we had to do this for Peter. We replaced the fifth dinosaur with a small 'prehistoric' flower.