Today is going to be the last post I do about projects for Julius’ first birthday unless someone requests I post another tutorial. First though, I have some stories about Julius.
Our friends gave Julius an alphabet puzzle for Christmas which he was extremely excited about. It came packaged in shrink wrap so after he was done carrying it around for a while I helped him open it up. He immediately picked it up and held it vertically and the pieces all fell out. He handed me pieces while I put it back together for him. When the puzzle was complete he handed me the shrink wrap. I realized what he wanted, but with no way to give it to him, I just sort of laid it on top of the puzzle and said “all done!” Satisfied, he picked up the puzzle again to resume carrying it around the house. Immediately he held it vertically again, dumping the pieces to the floor. He looked down, saw what happened and then threw the plastic shrink wrap as if to say “well this was garbage”. I thought it was pretty much the cutest thing ever.
Julius still doesn’t talk, but he is definitely better at getting his intentions across than ever before. For the first time ever I felt like I really understood what he wanted. After he woke up this morning, I changed his diaper and gave him a bottle of milk while we sat in the chair in his bedroom. When he had finished the milk he pointed to his crib. Sheepy was lying in his crib so I picked him up and gave him his stuffed animal. But then he looked right back at the crib expectantly. So I put him down in the crib and he immediately rolled over and went back to sleep! He NEVER goes back to sleep after he wakes up for the day, but he’s recovering from a cold, so it is not surprising he needed some extra z’s. But this is the first time he has pretty much asked to go to sleep. Amazing!
You know what else is amazing? This craft! The crown is SUPER EASY to make – with just some basic cutting and sewing skills and some cheap felt you can make crowns for all your tiny royalty! I modeled these crowns after the invitation I found on evite, and if you’re feeling so inclined you can bejewel them with decorations, or for older guests, let them decorate their own. Since our guests were all less than one year old I decided to minimize choking hazards and leave them unadorned. These should fit most princes and princesses from 0 to 3 years old.
Of course the owner of Whimsical Brims had a son who dislikes hats… He only will wear his crown for about 5 seconds. So here’s a picture of the king of the vacuum.
Royal Prince and Princess Crown
What you’ll need (per crown):
- 22″x4″ strip of felt
- 5″ strip of velcro
- crown pattern here
- Print out crown pattern and trace onto felt.
- Cut (I cut a couple crowns at once by pinning two pieces of felt together).
- Place one end of crown over the other end, overlapping.
- Pin a piece of velcro along the bottom of the crown where the two edges overlap, one on each side, so when the velcro overlaps it will form a crown. (Note I used a slightly different sized piece of velcro for the loop portion of velcro since I always need more length of loop tape. But you can make them both 5″ as I mention in the directions.)
- Stitch along the border of each piece of velcro.
- When placing the hat on the child’s head make sure the hook side (the scratchy side) of the velcro faces out. Adjust sizing by velcro to fit child’s head.
Finn is testing the crown out!
Please, no photos, the king insists.
Vicky modeling her crown.
Joanna is being shy with her crown.
I love all of the crowned babies!!
HAHA Thank you! Julius was the only one who did not enjoy wearing his crown. Oh the irony of a haberdasher having a son who hates hats… maybe it’s a phase…