Snow Day

So, I'd been wanting to make a crown and some dress-up stuff for my niece for Christmas. She's almost 2 and about to hit that magical age of imagination. My idea was to knit a crepe paper crown with buttons and fun ribbon, then to make a robe out of fuzzy, super soft material. Unfortunately it snowed today, making it impossible to gather the needed supplies. As I sat trapped in my house, I wondered what I could possibly make out of the craft supplies I had on hand.

I dug through my fabric box and found a scrap of pretty pink taffeta and a complimentary calico. I cut the taffeta to the (estimated) size of a two year old robe. I used the calico to make bias tape for the left and right side of the robe. It also worked as a pretty ruffle for the top and bottom of the robe!

Lucky for me, I am a fairly frugal person and have saved the ribbons used to tie various bouquets together. I had several sizes and colors saved up (pinks and purples mainly...PERFECT!). I took the longest piece of my "thrifty" ribbon and sewed it to the top of the robe. After I had stitched the ribbon in place, I thought that it would be fun to pour something down in the opening left between top and bottom stitching. I found some glitter (that was passed down to me from my Mom) and poured the entire bottle into the space between the ribbon and taffeta. The space was too large and the glitter sagged into one place. I took a deep breath, spread the glitter out evenly, then took another deep breath before sewing on top of the glitter. I had no idea what it would do to my machine, but I had visions of the needle breaking and flying into one of my eyeballs. Thankfully, I was able to keep both of my eyeballs and the stitching worked to keep the glitter evenly distributed!

The final touch was the crown. I had a tiny piece of gold felt left over from an apron project that had gone awry. It turned out to be just the right size for a fun princess crown! I took some more of my "thrifty" ribbon and stitched it around the bottom, so that the crown could be tied on. I added a complimentary light pink ribbon (accidentally purchased for a project because I thought it was white) and a button that had fallen off a pair of pants that used to fit me. It looked a little plain, so I cut out a few diamond shapes and sewed fabric (left over from the robe) to the back side of the felt. The fabric peaks through the front (reverse applique) and makes a whimsical looking crown.

Just for fun, I coaxed Dave into modeling the crown and robe.