Party Hats!!!

I made these Birthday Party Crowns for Emmalee's party last week.  I first saw the idea on Pinterest, but it actually comes from The Quilted Fish, but the pattern is $9 and I really thought I could make the crowns myself.  I will show you how I made mine, but if you are in doubt, head on over to The Quilted Fish and purchase the pattern.  p.s. she has the most adorable fabric line!!!!

I bought a couple sheets of poster board, then worked and re-worked the pattern until I had the look I was going for.  Here is a shot of my final attempt...

It ended up 9" tall and 22" wide.  The crown is not 9" tall, but you will need a piece of whatever you are using for your pattern that is that tall.  The actual height of that front spike is 7".  It works to have the crowns flat on the bottom instead of arched like mine, but I liked the way it made the crown wider at the top than at the bottom.  I thought they looked fancier that way :0)

I used the same pattern to trace all 6 crowns onto the poster board.  Then I traced the crown pattern onto the wrong side of my fabric.  You need a piece of fabric about 20 high and 22-24" wide for each crown.  I doubled over the fabric, wrong sides together, and sewed between 1/8 and 1/4" on the outside of the line I drew.  You can sew right on the pattern line since the fabric stretches, but I tried to add just a little extra to make up for any irregularities {since my helper cut my poster board crowns out for me :0}  Do not sew along the bottom arch-leave it open for turning.  

Cut around the stitching, sniping relief cuts in the curvy parts so there isn't any puckering when you turn the fabric right-side-out.  Go ahead and turn inside out, then insert one end of the poster board crown into the fabric crown.  The other side goes in fairly easily if you bow it slightly and then tuck it in.  Adjust the points so they are in the fabric points and you are good to go!  

I was stressing about how to close up the bottoms, and as the clock ticked later and later in the night, I just decided to serge.  I held my breath as I ran the crowns through the serger, but it worked like a charm :0)

Apparently, poster board is sewable!!!

That made this step even easier!  I sewed on velcro so that the hats are adjustable :0)

It was "sew" easy it made my heart smile.

Many, many months ago I bought this spool of elastic lace for $1 at SAS Fabrics in Phoenix.  It had about 100 yards on it {at least}.  I ignored for all that time, but came across it while looking for something else, and discovered it worked GREAT for trim when ruffled!!!  I ruffled napkins, placemats, and chair covers with the first half of the spool. This was what I had left.  I ruffled it with my ruffler foot, then sewed the ruffled strand directly to my crowns. 

How luscious is that lacy ruffle!?!  I found spools of the crocheted headband ribbon at Hobby Lobby on sale for $1.50.  It was the perfect trim for the bottom.  I just kept it a little lower so that the bottom serge line was covered up and no one had to look at the evidence of my laziness.

And there you have it!  I put my Maddie Girl- Flower Slave Child {I think we will have to change her name to make that official} in complete control of decorating the crowns with rolled flowers and such.  She couldn't believe I would trust her with such a life-threatening assignment.  Just look what a fabulous job she did....my 13 year old.... 

This one has to be my favorite...

For the one boy at the party.  We were going to put a dinosaur or something on there, but just ran out of time.

Here is a view from the top. 

That is why it is nice that these guys are two-sided.  So cute!

The crowns were a HUGE hit and so adorable to see on the kids during our Tea Party.

Now that Emmalee finally got her birthday party, maybe she will stop telling people every day is her birthday :0)  Be sure to check back.  There's more birthday party coming soon!