Our friend Anda Corrie shares a tutorial for making a fabric play crown: a favorite dress-up accessory and an instant Halloween costume!

After making my 4-year-old her first paper play crown, she began entreating me to make them for her nearly constantly. Suffice it to say they are one of her favorite go-to dress up accessories.

As Halloween grows closer, I started thinking about how to adapt our crown making into a more durable version and also use some of the Spoonflower fabric I’ve been hoarding in my sewing room! Need an instant costume? Here’s a quick tutorial for a play crown you can make in an hour or less.

DIY Fabric Play Crown Materials

  • Two 24” x 6” pieces of Spoonflower’s Petal Signature Cotton™
  • 24” length of ½” double-fold bias tape
  • One piece of 24″ x 6” card stock
  • Sewing machine
  • Scissors
  • Dabric pen
  • Ruler
  • Stapler, or needle and matching thread

1-cut-out-pattern

1. Measure your royal’s head circumference. Add 1½” to this measurement.

2. Draw a basic crown shape (straight line along the bottom, pointy triangles along the top) the length you’ve measured on heavy card stock. (Or download this free pattern, print and glue to the card stock and then cut out.)

3. Trace the shape onto the back of your fabric with a fabric pen and then add ½” seam allowance. Set aside the card stock pattern for later use.

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4. Cut two pieces of fabric from this pattern, for both the outside and inside of the crown.

3-stitch-along-edge

5. With right sides facing in, sew a straight stitch ⅜” from the edge of the sides and top points of the crown. Leave the bottom edge open.

Anda crown collage

6. Notch the top of the crown’s points and in between each point as well. Turn right-side out and press.

6-slide-card-into-crown

7. Slide the card stock pattern inside the crown.

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8. Straight stitch the bias tape along the bottom edge of the crown.

8-finished-bottom-crown

9. At this point, I like to check the fit again on the intended king or queen’s head before closing it up.

9-crown

10. Finish by hand stitching the crown closed—or in a pinch you can staple it shut and cover the inside staple ends with washi tape to prevent snagging your highness’s coiffure.

10b-sido-wearing-crown

About Our Guest Blogger

Andasidosmiling
Anda Corrie is an American illustrator, Etsy designer, and émigré living in Berlin, Germany with her small family. In her spare time she obsesses over vintage children’s books, makes homemade schnapps, sews tiny dresses that her 4-year-old stubbornly refuses to wear, and draws. Visit her Spoonflower shop for some lovely hand drawn fabric designs and her Etsy shop, Boosterseat.