Jemma’s first birthday is coming up, and I’m going all crazy with party planning. Realistically, it’s just an excuse for me to do some fun DIYs and take cute photos. Case in point: this DIY felt birthday crown headband. Turns out that making a felt crown is super easy and super cheap. I loosely based this DIY off of a tutorial I found at the blog Shop Sweet Things. The whole thing cost under five dollars for all the materials, assuming you’ve already got hot glue and scissors, and I finished it all within one naptime! Success!
Materials:
- 2 felt rectangles, approximately 2.5″x6″ (about the size of a dollar bill)
- Enough felt to spell out “one” (or number of choice)
- 12″ of elastic
- 7″ of ribbon (or other decoration)
- hot glue gun and glue
Instructions:
- Cut out your felt rectangles. I love that the DIY from Shop Sweet Things pointed out that the rectangles are roughly the same size as a dollar bill, so I used that as a guide instead of measuring.
- Glue the two rectangles together. You can use fabric glue, but I had hot glue available so I just used that. Elmer’s glue will not work.
- On the long edge of the felt, cut out points for the crown. I made little pencil marks about half an inch from the edge to ensure my points were equally tall, but I just freehanded the cutting.
- Cut out your letters (or numbers) from your other felt piece.
- Hot glue your letters to your felt rectangle.
- Glue your ribbon or other decoration along the bottom, straight edge of the felt rectangle, leaving some overhand on either side. I actually liked the look of the elastic I bought so much that I just used instead of the ribbon.
- Wrap your felt into a cylinder to form the crown. Attach the ends by hot glueing one of the overhanging ribbons to the inside of the felt and the other to the outside. Then hot glue up the seam of the felt and carefully press together to close the full height of the crown.
OPTIONAL: You can also stitch the edges of the felt together. I was lazy and didn’t care that much about the seam, since no one will really see it in the photos.
- Loosely measure your elastic for the headband by wrapping it around your baby’s head and cut to size.
- Hot glue the elastic to the underside of opposite ends of the crown, making sure any letters or numbers will show on the front when worn. You can also sew the ends into the felt for extra security (but I didn’t).
That’s it! Stick it on the baby’s head and snap some photos before they rip it off! And even though I called it a birthday crown, it could even make a cute Where the Wild Things Are costume.
Happy crafting!