DIY Flower Crown - Tutorial

I want to say first - in case you're like me and prefer not to use glue if possible, and cringe at the prospect of hand-sewing - that this crown is made entirely on your sewing machine.

NO GLUING.  NO HAND-SEWING.

HOORAY!

Emmy has a favorite book called Do Princesses Wear Hiking Boots?, and it sits firmly at the number two spot in our nightly rotation.  It's such a cute book.  The little girl in the story wears this crown of flowers wherever she goes, whatever she's doing - even if she's playing in the rain and mud.  So I decided to make Emmy a crown, too!  To wear while she's licking furniture or pretending not to eat the dog kibble.  Haha, that's my princess.  ;)

My goal with this project was total durability.  I want her to be able to REALLY wear it all the time, if she so chooses! So it also had to be totally comfortable.  I thought about using glue, but I don't like how it gets so hard and lumpy.  Plus, I'm not the tidiest gluer.  Plus my friend Beth has my glue gun right now #bethonblast.  So that was out.

Then when I was fiddling around with store-bought headbands Emmy has, it dawned on me - sandwich the flowers in between two headbands.  Then, an even better idea - make the whole shebang from scratch!

Want to make one, too!?

Emmy-Approved!

You will need:

                                   - 36 inches of Fold-Over Elastic (FOE) (more info below)

                                   - Faux Flowers (specifics below)

                                   - Sewing Machine

                                   - Thread to Match your FOE

A critical detail your flowers need to possess:

They need to taper out at the bottom of the stem.  Most faux flowers that are on a vine like this will have that wider end - it's the part that sort of 'plugs' into the vine.  Know what I mean?

This is crucial for your flowers to stay put within your crown.

First step:  Have your helper pull off a bunch of flower sprigs, while you're readying your FOE!  

A few things about fold-over elastic:

It's awesome.

It's soft as all get-out.

It comes in a bazillion colors and patterns.

It's incredibly easy to work with.

There are tons of applications for it's use.

A few cool FOE projects:

Five-Minute Women's Skirt

Baby Leg Warmers

Underthings for us Grown Gals

A Few Places to Buy FOE:

Etsy

eBay

FOE Your Diaper

So here is my 36ish inches of FOE - note it's folded in half.  You can also use two 18ish inch pieces if that's what you have.  Emmy has a pretty sizable melon, so in my opinion this measurement would fit ages 2 probably up to 5.  For the little'ns (2 and younger) I would cut it maybe an inch smaller.  

Or just wrap the FOE around the intendeds' head to get an estimate of length - and remember, this stuff stretches well, even after we sew it!

Line up several sprigs along the FOE to get a sense of how many you're going to need:

I ended up needing one more sprig than I initially laid out here.

Pin the ends of your FOE together, overlapping all 4 layers:

Zigzag stitch over your pin (we're livin' on the edge!), making sure to catch all layers:

Now you've essentially made a double-decker headband:

Now we're going to make the first little slit for our first sprig.

Near the seam you just sewed, pinch one layer (the outer layer) of the FOE like so:

Snip a very tiny hole in the center of the FOE - there's a groove running down the middle of fold-over elastic - that's where your going to snip.  And remember, this stuff stretches, so the hole needn't be as big as your stem:

Tiny snip!

Insert your first sprig into the hole you snipped, all the way until you reach a fork (or whatever other geographical feature your particular flowers have):

Now we're going to zigzag stitch over the part of the stem that's in between the two layers of FOE:

The key here is to lock in that wider part of the stem.  Where it's wider, use a wider stitch, and as the stem narrows, make your stitches more narrow.  This will ensure that the stem can't be pulled out:

My stitch widths varied from about 2.5 to 6mm at the widest point.

Tack down the stem at various spots, with various stitch widths, and also right up against the opening itself:

Now, lay your next sprig on top of the headband, in line with the first.  Do you want the flowers more compact?  More spread out?  Up to you!  Mark with a pin or with your keen eye where your next snip needs to be, and snip:

Try to keep the previous flowers out of the way when you're sewing the next ones in line:

Continue all the way around, until you are back to whence you started!  I had seven sprigs in total, but this will depend entirely on your flowers and your spacing.  Also, any bunchiness or weirdness will straighten out beautifully once on the wearer.

Done!  Put atop beautiful babychild:

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial!  Hit me up if you make one!

I truly can't WAIT to see the variations you make!

Have a great week everyone,

cheers!