The crown

The crown is another one of those birthday ideas I had been wanting to tackle for a while since hearing a friend talk about the idea. I only took me three years to finally get around to making it happen.




I used plain 'ol craft felt by the yard from the fabric store. I found a tutorial over at Juicy Bits which even has a printable pattern. I didn't want too much of the gathered fabric at the back so I freehanded a template the circumference of my oldest's head minus an inch or so.




The goldish yellow for the front cut a half an inch smaller than the green backing. I also used heavy fusible interfacing but had trouble fusing it to the acrylic felt without turning the iron on too hot and melting the felt. I erred on the side of caution and figured a little bit fused was fine since the stitching would catch it in other places.




It's definitely a little wonky especially the front initial patch (should have interfaced those too) but he loves it. I used mostly the blanket stitch for giving the "gems" the look of a pronged jewelry setting. For the elastic portion I made a three inch tube of felt and inserted a two inch piece of elastic that was then tacked and sewn into the layers of the crown before sewing up the sides. Just enough stretch to give some growing room without the ruffly look.




I did a good bit of decorative stitching both along the top and bottom edges as well as between the peaks for reinforcement. As a bonus the stitching showing up on the inside makes for a reversible crown.




Now to tackle another for kid 2's birthday in a couple of months. It's very hard on a three year old to remember that his birthday will be celebrated in a few months when all he sees is preparations for someone else's. In a way it's easier when they get better at tracking time, yet in other ways it's harder when they begin to count down the days until a special occasion and can't contain the excitement.

It's a bit difficult having three birthdays all sandwiched in between the holidays. Especially for a fly by the seat of her pants momma who usually becomes aware of a deadline right as it's approaching. However it's definitely worth it.