Your Royal Princess-ness: DIY Fabric Crown

Mr Cheeky Monkeys has a niece who turns four next month and I thought a dress-up crown would be a fun gift for a girly little girl.  It was really very easy to put together (even for someone like me who hates having to iron sewing projects).  So I've put together a quick tutorial to help you make your own fabric crown for your little Prince or Princess.

Supplies:

- fabric for the front of the crown (a fat quarter should be more than enough)

- lining fabric for the back of the crown

- scraps of fabric or felt for embellishments

- buttons

- fusible interfacing/stabiliser

- 50cm ribbon

How to:

1. Draw out a crown shape which meets your fancy.  I opted for a simple pointed crown, but feel free to pick whatever shape you feel comfortable sewing.  To ensure your crown is symmetrical, draw one half of the crown and trace your template onto fabric which has been folded in half (make sure to line up the edge of the template with the folded edge of your fabric).

2. Cut out your fabric and fusible interfacing and fuse the interfacing to the wrong side of the crown shapes.

3. Pin the crown pieces together, right sides facing, and sew up the bottom straight edge of the crown and the top zig zag edge (or whatever your top edge shape is).  LEAVE THE SIDE EDGES UNSEWN.  Clip all corners and curves, then turn the crown right side out.  Iron the crown flat to remove any creases and fold in and iron down the raw edges of the crown sides.

4. Cut the ribbon in half.  Place one ribbon half between the crown layers at one open edge; sew down the edge to close the seam.  Repeat with the other ribbon half and open crown edge.

5. The fabric flower I made is a simple flower consisting of folded fabric circles and a button (see here for a tutorial).  Attach the flower embellishment with fabric glue and set aside to dry.  And that's it, you're all done!

Alternatives

1. Further embellish your crown by sewing a strip of lace to the bottom edge of the crown before attaching the fabric flower.  Don't like flowers?  Then add other fun embellishments such as hearts, buttons, butterflies or acrylic sew-on/glue-on jewels.

2. To make the crown a double-sided one, simply use pretty fabric for both sides.  For younger children, either leave off the embellishment or securely attach flat embellishments to both sides of the crown (simple felt shapes would work well).  For older children, attach the flower embellishment to a brooch pin so that it can be removed and re-attached depending on the way the crown is worn.

3. To make a crown for a little Prince, try using fabric with stripes or chevrons (or even his favourite dinosaur or robot design).  Embellish with buttons or felt shapes.