Fleece Crown

felt/Fleece Crown:
I have been teaching the 3 and 4 year olds at church and last week Gwen and one of the other girls practically fought to the death over who got to be the line leader. (Really, Gwen clotheslined her and she fell, right in front of her mother. Not our finest moment!) So I made a fabric crown that we can pass from one kid to the next so there is no confusion in the future. (I figured that with their track record, a paper crown might get torn.) It think it could also be a cool thing for a princess or Knight party.

Here's how I did it.

1. Begin with two 21"x 4.5" strips of Yellow Fleece. It's probably a good idea to measure the kid's head before cutting your material (I used fleece because it is stretchy and the edges don't unravel.)
2. Next take a piece of paper and folded it the long way in half twice. (So when you I open it up you have 8 long slender sections.) While still folded, measured about 4" from the bottom of the paper and cut the paper at about a 45 degree angle.
3. Take a pen and traced the outline of the paper on one side of one strip of the fabric.
4. Take both layers with the marked side up and sew along the zig zag line making sure to keep the bottom lined up. (You can pin the bottom edge to make sure it stays together if you like.)
5. Trim the extra fabric off the top of the crown about 1/4" from the edge of the stitching.
6. Sew the bottom edges together about 1/4" from the edge.
7. Now sew the sides together. If a child is available, use their head a model to help you know how much fabric to overlap at the edge. (The stretch to the fabric will help make it fit a wide range of heads.)
8. Turn the crown around so that the pen marks are on the inside of the crown. (As long as you didn't use a permanent marker or an expo pen, the marks should come out after washing the crown once or twice.) If you would like you can now decorate the crown with embroidery, buttons, fabric paint... ...what ever you like.
   
   

   
   Sunbeam update- I used the crown this week and it made things a lot easier. Gwen and her "rival" got along much better, she still ended up making her fall down over something else while in class, but it was an accident and they also had a lot of friendly time too. I think the problem between the two of them is that they are too much a like. Once they get used to one another I think they will become the best of friends.