Crowning glory

The making bug really caught hold this month as Sophie's first birthday draws closer and closer. I have finished her building blocks and quilt and decided there was just time to whip up a special party hat.

I decided a mini crown made with fabric and ribbon would be just the thing for my little princess (i know... enough!).

After rummaging around on Pinterest for some inspiration I decided to make my own pattern. And here's the finished result - cute eh!

The hardest part was coming up with the perfect pattern. It needed a slight curve so that the points angled out slightly and big enough dips for the points to look crowny!

I choose some lovely soft muted grey and brown fabric I had in my stash and ironed on some lightweight interfacing to the floral fabric to give it a little more structure.

I choose some complementing ribbon and sewed these to the front before sewing the two pieces of crown together along the points.

Next I sewed the edges together then flipped it the right way out, pushing out the tips of the crown carefully with scissors.

I then gave it an iron and ironed the a bottom hem of about 1/4 inch on both external and internal fabrics. I cut two lovely plush baby pink ribbons and pinned them to the sides before carefully sewing the bottom edge closed.

My final touch was some gold pearl cotton hand stitching around the edge!

A quick how to... join together batting pieces

I am still in the middle of making two quilts and some building blocks, but life such as it is means that precious sewing time is a rare thing. I have finished cutting and piecing together the tops of both quilts and basted Sophie's ready for hand quilting. Poor Finn's didn't have a piece of batting just the right size so I've patchworked his using up bits and pieces. I thought I'd share a good way of doing this that makes bumpless joins!

Start by choosing a zig zag stitch that is made up of a number of smaller stitches - I choose this 3 step zig zag. I then made the stitch length long and narrower.

Then I set the needle to stop down and started sewing. Butting the fabric together as it went under the foot.

The final seam - flat and pretty strong. A great way to use up those left over pieces of batting.

Finn expresses his approval of both quilts so far!