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Circus Party Hat How-To

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Party hats add just an extra bit of fun to any celebration.  You can make one in a matter of minutes.  
Gather some supplies.  I like to look through my ribbons, paper, and doo-dads, and grab everything within my color scheme.  Then, I can choose which items to use and which to scrap as the hat comes together.  Following the Party Hats 101 instructions, cover your party hat with heavy cardstock and a ruffled strip of fabric.  Add a bow by cutting a 5 1/2″ x 2 1/2″ piece of fabric – fold it in half and stitch around each side and across the bottom, leaving an opening in the bottom center for turning.  Turn and press the triangle.  Then, fold it into a bow and wrap a small piece of ribbon around the center, hot gluing to secure it in the back.  Hot glue the bow onto the ruffle in the center front of the hat.  All set! 
Also, a quick picture run through for making a cute, ticket display stand for cupcakes or a cake or whatever:
Other posts for Vintage Circus Party include:
Comments on all posts this week will be entered for a chance to win a little box of circus fun – hat, definitely included!

Vintage Circus Party – Inspiration and Giveaway

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We’re going to do something new around here, okay?  If you’ve been reading along, you know I love a good celebration.  And you know I love to dabble in a whole lot of everything artsy craftsy.  My need to get elbow deep in frosting, fabric, and paper on a more regular basis has sparked the foundation for a new direction here at girl. Inspired.  – Party Inspiration!  Beginning today, I am going to be crafting up celebrations to share with you.  I will put together a “look” centered around a theme, and then throughout the week, I’ll show you how to create many of the components of that look.  Sound good?  Exciting?  Okay, then, here we go.  First up…..a Vintage Circus Party – I couldn’t resist.
Glass Bottles with Red Striped Straws and Ribbon/Ticket Ties

This party grouping includes:

  • Colorful Striped, Three-Layer Cake with Fluffy Whipped Icing
  • Glass Beverage Bottles with Ribbons and Tickets – the tickets would be great for writing party guests’ names and they look super fun, too!
  • Wooden Dowels with knots of colorful ribbons pinned to the top make quick and festive table decorations
  • Cupcakes with a big swirl of fluffy icing and “cake pop” style cherries on top
  • A Ruffled Party Hat to coordinate with the party theme and dress
  • The Party Dress (here, a size 12-18 months) in a vintage-inspired blue floral bodice and yellow and white striped skirt, detailed with a rolled edge on the neck and sleeves, shirring around the neck and waist, and white pom detailing on the hem.
  • Bright, red polka dot bags of Popcorn
  • A Big Roll of Tickets
Circus Striped Cake
 
Quick Shirred Circus Dress
Ruffled Party Hat

 

Over the next week, I’ll be sharing the how-to on the dress, hat, and the cake, as well as details on the fabric and where you can buy some of the party supplies I included.
 

Other posts for the Vintage Circus Party include:

the hats

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Okay!  This is the last of the Tea Party details and I’m getting anxious to show you some of the new things I’ve been working on, but since I know you want to make some of these hats just. for. fun., I’m sharing some close-ups and a little photo step-by-step.  The supplies I used included:  felt, tulle, pearls, feathers, silk flowers, flower ribbon, plain headbands, and some pieces off a feather boa.  Basically, I just started with a piece of tulle and tied or fluffed it into something “big.”  Then, holding it in my hand, I started grouping some flowers and/or feathers around it.  When I thought I had a grouping I liked, I hot glued it into place on a small square of felt.  Wearing the headband and looking in the mirror, I held the glued arrangement up and figured out the correct positioning on the headband.  Then I ran back to the glue gun and glued it right in place onto the headband, covering the back with another piece of felt.

 For Addie’s hat, I glued strips of flower ribbon onto a circle of felt, then glued elastic to the bottom, with the ends meeting in the center of the felt circle bottom, and then covered the elastic ends with a backing of felt.  I knew she would never keep a headband on her head, and this method worked out perfectly. 

 
Here’s a closer look at some of the other hats we wore:
I wanted to show you how easy it was to make the tulle bow on the top of Addie’s hat.  Can you follow the pictures?  It’s just felt, a tulle bow, and some pearls. 
So…do you need anymore convincing to go make some hats?  It can be a tad bit addicting.  Don’t you need another craft project?  No?  How about a photo shoot prop?  Because this picture right here, that I’m about to post (again), just makes it SO worthwhile that I made these hats.  I’m totally framing this one….and I bet you can get a framer, too. 

the party details

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warm. romantic. innocent. whimsical. carefree. soft. nostalgic. 
 
 
When I plan one of the girls’ birthday parties, I have to start with a theme, either an object or a color scheme or a feeling.  When they are too young to dictate these things,  I get to choose and I typically choose the birthday girl’s favorite animal, toy, or activity as the springboard for my creative process.  I knew this would be the last year I’d have free reign on a birthday party theme, so I could. not. resist. the tea party theme.
Once I have a theme, I start looking for fabric or paper that coordinates and the details develop from there.  In this case, I was already working with a particular line of fabric for Addie’s bedroom and I was excited to work it into the decor.  I knew that bringing some fabric outside would soften the environment.  Plus I love dual function.  Bedroom decor that doubles as party decor.  perfect.  Finished pieces included several throw pillows and a quilt.  Fabric line is Penelope by Holly Holderman for Lakehouse Dry Goods.
With the leftover material, I made a very scrappy streamer thingy.  Tissue paper puffs, knotted fabric strips, fabric pennants, coffee filter balls…I draped the streamer from the outer tree branches to the chandelier in the middle and it totally dressed up the whole area.

 

For extra whimsy, I tied a few huge balloons on really long ribbons to float around the perimeter of the party.  This balloon was tied to a little chalkboard arrow sign that read “Tea Party”.  (Sometimes I like to balance my dual-purpose items with totally purposeless items….)
HAD to have hats for the party.  After the royal wedding, can anyone honestly say they don’t want an excuse to put something big and extravagant on their head?  I got so giddy making hats for the girls and myself, I called my mom and sister to make sure they wanted one, too.  “Oh, no, I just can’t stand wearing something on my head,” they both said.  Suit yourself.  Then mom came over to play tea party treat making with me.  You should have seen her face when I showed her my hat.  She spent a good part of the rest of the night making hats for herself, my sister, and my sis-in-law.  You can find more details on how to make fascinators here.

 

After coming across this blog, I was smitten with the idea of including little food labels on the treat table.  I had purchased some digital brushes from House of 3 before they closed up shop and this was the perfect little project to play around in Photoshop.  I don’t know a drop of French, but it was great entertainment typing the names of my desserts into an online translator.  Whether they translated correctly or not is a mute point as none of us read or speak French.  (another purposeless detail…)  The “eat Cake” accent was also a House of 3 printable.  I just recently saw some of these designs at a scrapbook store, so you may be able to get stamps or printouts that way.  They are part of the Parisian Anthology line.  Olivia and I just doctored everything up with a little glitter.

 

 

 

And finally, the tea itself.  You remember the china and the cups and saucers and linens that we thrifted?  Well, they all came together beautifully, don’t you think?  
Water was the preferred base for the girls’ beverage concoctions.  Want to make some adorable little sugar “cubes?”  just mix some granulated sugar with a few drops of water and a little food coloring and stir into a paste.  Pack into a candy or butter mold and immediately dump out onto wax paper; allow to dry.  I need to do a little more research on the coloring part of this because my sugar cubes faded after a couple days – thoughts on that?  Also, how much fun would it be to serve pink “tea?”  I didn’t remember that trick until the day after the party when I was taking these sugar cube closeups.  aw, well, I can do the pink tea for Olivia’s birthday in September.  Her party theme choice has evolved from “butterfly” to “butterfly tea party.” 

 

What do you think?  Does it look like this two year old is having fun? 
 

Waiting for Spring

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I’m pretty much done with the whole winter thing.  The clouds, the gloom, the rain, the lack of good light for photos.  The hunt every morning for three little people’s socks, shoes, pants, shirts, sweaters, and jackets.  Seriously, how do you people who have to put on snow gear every morning make it through?  And does anyone have a problem finding matching socks….every. single. morning…for every. single. child.  Yep!  I’m ready for spring.  When the kids just need a dress and some sandals and they’re good to go.  A dress like this one.  Doesn’t it have spring written all over it?   

pretty in pink

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I’ve tinkered with the knot dress pattern several times since the first time I sewed Addison’s birthday dress.  This time, I used a light pink Kona cotton for the main skirt and it turned out so beautifully.  The dress looks and feels luxurious.  This particular cotton is more substantial and drapes nicely.  I prefer the ruffles sewn on 1/4 of the way down from the top of the strip rather than across the center as I originaly did.  This dress will be up for sale in my shop this week.

I made another party hat to coordinate which will also be in the shop.  These hats are too fun.  If you missed the original tutorial, go to the party hat tutorial here.  If you’ve made a hat or two, show me please!  I’d love to see what you’re making!

Happy Monday!

 

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