enJOY it

Kid crafting is my favorite crafting.

Especially projects like this, that come together in 30 minutes with supplies I already own. I really wanted to make some sort of a birthday crown for Ellerie to wear at her rainbow party this coming weekend. Originally I thought I would go with felt (but since that involved driving to the store to buy felt) I went with fabric and poster board.

The “process” was simple. I wrapped poster board around Ellerie’s head to see how long of a piece I would need to use and then cut it down so it was about 7 inches tall. This gave me a rectangle of poster board that was 19×7 inches.

And then I used my machine to stitch on stripes of fabric. (I folded them in half lengthwise to get that clean edge.) I went with simple patterns from my stash and just attached them right to the poster board (I used a regular needle, but you could use a denim needle if you’re worried about the thickness).

I started at the bottom with the blue and worked my way up to the red. The “2” I added last, not sure if it would add or take away from the crown. I’m glad I went with it. It’s just freehand cut and them machine stitched into place.

To make the all important “points” up top, I machine stitched “triangles” through the fabric and the poster board and then just cut along the line, leaving a small hem (seen in the photo above). It worked out great.

I used a zig-zag stitch on the edges to finish it off and then stapled it into place to hold it into a crown shape.

Seriously, if you can work you sewing machine, you can do this project and the results are too fun. When I first stuck it on Ellerie her response was “no, no, no.” but it’s been a week and now she asks for her “bir-day crown?” I’m cautiously optimistic that we might get her to wear it for a few minutes next Sunday.