Super Mario Birthday Party - Princess Peach Felt Crowns

For E's birthday party, I was confident that I was going to make Mario Caps for the boys, but I didn't want the girls to be left out. The majority of girls don't even know who Super Mario is so I wanted to make something that they would enjoy regardless if they knew who the characters were, but I also wanted to keep the Super Mario theme. Therefore, I decided to make the crown Princess Peach wears.

Here is the character, Princess Peach. Her crown looked simple enough. I figured, "what girl wouldn't want to be a Princess?" I'd been invited to three Pink and Princess Parties this year alone so I convinced myself that this was a great headpiece for the girls.

As with any creation that I make, I started with a hand-drawn picture which I then drew on the computer. Here's the crown I came up with.

After spending 10-12 hours sewing the Mario caps, I was unsure if I wanted to tackle another unknown amount of sewing hours on the crowns. The weekend before the party, I printed and cut the paper crowns for all the girls that I invited. I told myself "...and that was that."

Yet, if you really knew me, "that is really never just that." In the end, somehow, I always convince myself to go the extra mile and so off to the fabric store I went to buy some felt two days before the party.

I used my paper crowns as a template for the felt (slightly modifying it), layering a slightly smaller yellow layer on top of the golden felt.

To save a little time, I used some spray glue to adhere the two layers together. To match the princess peach crown, I cut out blue and red circles to resemble the gems she has on her crown.

Since all the girls have a different size head, I used elastic for the back in order for it to be adjustable.

To make the elastic strap, cut out a piece of felt approximately 24" in length and about 2"-3" wide depending upon your preference. The length doesn't have to be exact since it will be scrunched up in the end.

Fold the felt length-wise and sew. Do not sew the ends together so that you can insert the elastic all the way through.

Next, cut a piece of elastic that is approximately 6"- 8". Use a longer piece for a larger head size. Mine were for 6 year olds.

To get the elastic to go through the fabric, tie a knot at the end of the elastic and insert a stick in the knot. I just nabbed a chopstick.

Insert the stick into the opening of the fabric.

Be sure to pin the end of the elastic to the end of the fabric so that it does not go all the way through.

Once through the fabric, grab hold of the elastic and remove the stick. Un-knot the elastic.

Pin the elastic to the felt and then sew the ends of the openings together with the elastic in between. Make sure the elastic doesn't slip.

When you are done, they should look like this:

Sew the elastic band to the crown.

Here is the back of the crown





The final product is a crown definitely fit for any Princess

Here are a few princesses that were more than happy to model their crown.

Thanks girls! You are all a peach!