Birthday crowns

Esther and Ellamay are turning 6 next month. I thought I would post about the birthday crowns I made for their last birthday. So super easy and last so much better than any of those cheap plastic tiaras that hardly even last for the car trip home. The crown tutorial is found here. The tutorial calls for wool felt but as with all my felt projects so far, I just used acrylic. I followed the suggestions made here to make less elastic part and more felt.

I did a couple of things differently. Firstly, instead of using the fusible webbing in between the felt, I used some cheap craft foam. It worked perfectly as it gives the crown strength to stand up properly and it can still bend without any worry of breaking. The first ones I used self-adhesive foam but it gummed up my scissors so much that I just used plain foam for the rest and stuck the foam and felt together with a swipe of glue stick glue. Just enough stick there to keep it in place while sewing. Secondly, by the time I got to finishing off the elastic part, I didn't bother with the casing. The kids didn't care - so I won't either.

I made about 6 of them for party favours last June for Esther and Ellamay's 5th birthday party. They loved them. The one in the picture below was one I made for a birthday present for one of their kinder friends. Big hit! I paired the crowns for the party (and this present) with a $2 sparkly scarf from The Reject Shop and some other bits and pieces and we were in business.

Now looking at the great dress up things on ikatbag, I might have to have a look at making some more of those for this birthday. Especially those masks...