Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Head Dress {The Kids' Table Favors}

 You just never know where inspiration will hit ya. I've been trying to come up with a more meaningful place card/favor for our Thanksgiving. But also one that didn't have me running out buying supplies either. What a tall order! 

Then over the weekend, E and W were playing with this felt head dress that I had picked up at JoAnn's in the $1 section a while back. It was too big for E but it was too cute not to pass up. While they were playing, it hit me: I could make one for each cousin that will be there. And I'll personalize each to make it more memorable!
I don't think I've shared my love affair with felt yet with this blog. It's really one of greatest and awesome-est {yeah, i know...not a real word...} fabrics to work with. So I immediately got to work by pulling out all my scraps. I used the JoAnn's headband as my template.

First, I cut out my front and back headband strips from brown {times seven}. Then I embroidered all seven cousins' names.

Next, I traced the four different templates for the layered leaves on to green, red, orange and brown felt. {which I wish I could show you my four pretty little stacks, but that picture somehow got deleted. bleh.}  Here's the back of the one I purchased to give you an idea of the templates I used.

I then cut little slits into the leaves, to make them more leaf-like. That was done by folding each leaf in half and making little downward cuts starting from the top of the leaf.

Now came the tricky part: assembly. 
I glue-gunned all my layers together. My first run-in with a problem. I came up with this finished product:
 Um, yeah. Not going to cut it for a warrior-like head dress, yo. I consulted with my other half who is THE problem-solver. And he suggested I do this:
I glued the rest of the overlaying parts of the leaves together to try to reinforce them. Viola! We're back in business!
I also glued a small extra piece in back to good measure.

I laid them all out to make sure I put the velcro pieces on the right sides.

Funny thing about velcro...when I only had three head dresses left to make, they suddenly disappeared. W and I started going through the downstairs wondering where we could have put them. Since I do my crafting on our dining table, it's not uncommon for materials to be re-located for meal times. W suddenly started laughing because he saw the velcro had totally done its job...to my butt!
It was hilarious; partly because a minor crisis had been adverted and I didn't need to re-do them.

Last steps were to pin and sew those puppies up!
I had some issues getting my machine to go through the parts that were heavily hot-glued. I tried to get close enough to the center orange leaf on both sides and called it good.

And then they were done!
They are all packed up and ready for our long drive! I hope they like them! Now, how in the world will I be able to get all seven wearing them and smiling for the camera?!

Stay tuned for the adult favors!

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