Felt Crown Tutorial

Ok, I have a tutorial for all of you! I have been making these crowns a long time and we just love them around here. I decided to take pictures for a tutorial, let me know if you have any questions or if anything is unclear! This tutorial is for PERSONAL USE ONLY . I don’t care if you make them for your friends or your friend’s friends, but please don’t sell them or sell the tutorial. Thanks! 🙂

* I just started a flickr group for any projects made using my tutorials.  Please feel free to stop by and post your finished or WIP! 

1. Iron THICK craft stabilizer onto both pieces of crown felt. Trace out your crown (click crown for pdf of template) onto side you want in front with mark b gone pen or chalk. I used cheapo felt but wool felt or a blend would be sublime! both for sewing and for wear and tear. If you can afford to splurge about $7 worth of wool felt from Joann’s do it!

2. Sew buttons onto spires of crown. Only sew to top layer of felt(not the back of the crown).

3. Trace a letter backwards onto heat’n bond light. I got mine from a quilt applique book but you can take any font and reverse it and print it out. Trace it onto the heat’n bond light. Iron onto felt you want to be the intial.

4. Cut around traced letter.

5. Peel paper backing off of letter and place on crown. Iron onto the front of crown.

6. Sew letter onto crown (top layer only). Lengthen your stitches a tad. I have a digital machine and I just go up one notch.

7. Layer two crown layers together interfacing sides inward and felt facing outward. Pin into place.

8. Using the drawn template as your guide sew around the crown shape leaving two spots at the base of the crown for the elastic to go into. I generally use a lenthen the stitch length to 3 as felt can be trickier to sew through. I also do 3 stitches up from the bottom and leave a spot of about 1″ open for the elastic.

9. Using sharp scissors cut around the crown shape leaving approx 1/8″-1/4″ allowance. Make sure you don’t snip any stitches especially on the backside. Better to have more than to ruin it.

10. Insert 3/8″-1/2″ width elastic ( elastic length should be: measure the child’s head and subtract the length of the crown+2″ for where the elastic goes into the crown. Sweet Girl is 3 years old and her head measures 20″) about 1″ into one side and sew shut. I reverse and then go back over so 3 rows of stitches so it doesn’t pull out.

11. Take your fabric that you will use to cover elastic. Cut at 3.5″xdouble the length of your elastic (you want it to bunch up when the elastic is not being pulled). Iron short ends and sew down. Fold in half right sides together and sew using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Zig zag or serge edges.

Flip tube right side out. Iron flat.

12. Attach large safety pin onto end of elastic. Use this to guide the elastic through the fabric tube.

13. Remove safety pin and insert 1″ elastic into other end of crown. Sew shut triple again.

14. You are done!!