Project Fail and DIY Challenge

My due date with sweet baby #3 is in less than a month.  Naturally I have been trying to prepare for her arrival and finish up any baby projects I had started.  One such project was this one, and it didn't turn out so well ...

I had this, what I thought was, a masterfully creative idea for a baby mobile to hang over Joci's crib.  I wanted to take the shabby-chic no-sew fabric banner idea and transfer it to a tomato cage, thus making an adorable tiered fabric mobile.  I think it was a great idea, but somehow it didn't turn out so great.

Here was the process ...

Step 1: Acquire a tomato cage.  Have your father-in-law cut the "feet" off the end with some sort of wire cutter that you are too afraid to use.

Step 2: Purchase several coordinating fat quarters from your local fabric store.  Cut each into 12 strips, approx. 1-1.5" in. in width.

Step 3: Begin tying your strips around the tomato cage.  Be as patterned or as random as you'd like to be.

Step 4:  Continue the tying process until you are completely sick of it and the patterns you once thought were so cute now look boring.  

And here's the finished product:

Josh told me it looked like trash.  I think it looks like mummy grave clothes.  I tried to hang it with fishing line and that wasn't quite strong enough.  I originally bought 6 fat quarters at $1.99 each and it barely covered the tomato cage.  So this project wouldn't be as budget-friendly as I'd hoped.  Luckily a friend gave me the banner she had made for Evie's memorial service and so I used some of those fabric strips to complete this project. 

All in all, just not what I was going for.  I can't quite call it a pinterest fail because this idea never was on pinterest.  It's more of a personal creative ambition fail.  Eesh.  That sounds much worse.  

So anyway, I'm using this misstep to issue a challenge to you creative types out there: can you make this idea work?  Can you make it better/cuter/less expensive/easy to hang?  If you can, please post your results here - I would love to see how this has inspired you!  

As for me, I'll be at Target, where already made, cute baby things abound.  :) 

Mom, mom, take a picture of me measuring the tall of this.  Mom can I be in the picture?  Mom, get me in the picture too.