Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Party Hats

I love making fun party hats for special occasions, especially first birthdays. They are really easy to make and look so cute in pictures. Many of our friends are turning one soon so I decided to make a few today and figured I might as well take pictures in case any of you want to try your hand at making one. I was making two and mixed up which one I was taking pictures of so sorry for the fabric switch in the middle. These hats were both for girls, but you can make these for boy too, just use more masculine colors and trim.

Supply list:
  • Pre-made party hats (or you can make your own with paper, tape, and elastic. I just happened to have these one hand so I figured I would use them and save myself a few steps)
  • Enough fabric to cover the hat
  • Spray Adhesive
  • Coordinating trim
  • A really light weight stuffed animal or finger puppet
  • A glue gun
  • Tape
  • Extra paper and glitter are optional for decoration
  • A needle and thread First, snip the top off of the party hat and save it to put on top of the stuffed animal
    Next, carefully tear open the party hat
    Remove the elastic if you're using sheer fabric like I did so you can cover the white side of the hat and the pattern won't show through. Save the elastic for later.
    Roughly cut out the fabric using the hat for a template and leave extra fabric on all of the edges. Do the same for the tiny hat for the stuffed animal.
    Coat the wring side of the fabric with spray adhesive (I recommend doing this outside because it's sticky and messy). Lay the white side of the party hat on the fabric and smooth the bubbles out. Then clip the corners and fold the fabric over and press it down. Do the same for the mini hat for the stuffed animal.
    If you want to decorate the hat with a number give the hat a minute to set while you cut a number out of cardstock. I just free-handed this, but you can print out a number and trace it if you need to.
    To coat the number with glitter use a paintbrush or a finger to coat the number with Elmer's glue.
    Sprinkle glitter over the number and press it down a little, then wait for it to dry a little.
    You a hot glue gun to add trim around the bottom of the party hat
    I cut a pom pom from the trim and glued it to the top of the mini party hat for the stuffed animal too.
    Use the glue gun to glue the party hat back together.
    Now place the stuffed animal of finger puppet in the top of the party hat and use a glue gun to put the part hat back together. I slipped an extra piece of paper in between the party hat and stuffed animal so that I didn't get glue on the stuffed animal and I pulled it out after the glue dried.
    Now glue gun the glitter number on the front of the hat. I've also decorated hats using alphabet stickers to spell out the child's name instead of the glitter number.
    Thread a needle and stick it through both sides of the mini party hat
    Then tie the party hat on the stuffed animal or finger puppet
    Tape the elastic strap back on the hat
    And walla, a cute party hat for the birthday boy or girl!



2 comments:

Elisa said...

I am storing this idea away for Bub's #1. Thanks for the great idea!!

J.R. and Meg +3 said...

Thank you for the sweet addition to our celebrations! The hat was darling, totally original, and so cute on. What a fun idea--thanks for sharing your creativity.