Mad Hatter Saturday!

I have two weeks until Imma's birthday party so I am frantically trying to get as many items made as I possibly can. My goal for today was to get all of the felt items done.  I got very close to achieving this goal. I just have to finish putting the spots on the mushrooms and we'll be all done with felt.  Unless, of course, I decide to attempt something else. . . .
I looked at a lot of the photo prop options for Alice in Wonderland parties on Etsy. I love to support my fellow Etsy crafters and I was seriously considering just ordering from there but I finally decided to just go ahead and make the props myself. I knew it would take longer but I wanted them from felt and not card stock   I wasn't sure if I would be able to make the Mad Hatter's hat or not, I've never attempted anything like that before, but I decided to give it a whirl today and I'm really happy with how it turned out.  I measured Imma's head--she has a pretty big head so I figured, if it will fit her it will fit most of her friends--and used that measurement to determine the size of the bottom of the hat. I realized pretty quickly I was going to need two pieces of felt so I decided to do two different colors, just to make it a little more "mad." I used purple and teal for the body of the hat.  I made the top of the hat two inches wider than the bottom. I sewed the two sides together. so I had a sort-of tube.  For the top of the hat, I knew I would need to insert some cardboard. Luckily, the round piece of cardboard on the top of the ribbon I use fit perfectly, so I used that. I hot glued it inside of the hat a little ways down from the top.  Then, I sewed a circle of blue felt to the top. I thought the brim of the hat didn't need to be perfect because the Mad Hatter is mad, so I cut a two wavy half circles in royal blue and sewed those on.  Then, I decorated by hot gluing different complimentary ribbons on all of the seems. I added some tulle and feathers.  Then, I made three felt roses and I made the little 10/6 sign out of felt and added those. When I tried it on Imma, it wasn't standing up right.  So I took another piece of cardboard from my ribbon spools, trimmed it down a little, and hot glued it about 4 inches from the bottom of the hat.  I decided to add a ribbon for the children to tie it on if they'd like and there you go! I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. What do you think?

My first attempt at a Mad Hatter's hat.

Today, I also made:
ears for the March Hare
ears for Door Mouse
a mask for the March Hare
a mask for the Door Mouse
a mask for the White Rabbit (I bought white rabbit ears at Easter time)
10 mushrooms for table decorations
and ears and a mask for the Cheshire Cat, which Imma is modeling below (she has the ears on backwards but that's okay!)

Imma modeling the Cheshire cat ears and mask

I still have a lot more items to make but we are getting there.  I am considering putting this together as a package on Etsy.  Is this something you would consider purchasing and if so at what price point?  I really appreciate your feedback!
What did you do with your Saturday?
P.S. I did spend the day with my children! :)

Customers Are Inspiring!

Life has gotten a little hectic for me as I finish out the school year as both a teacher and the mother of a soon-to-be-First-Grader.  I hope to be more consistent in my posting again, once school gets out and I (theoretically!) have more time.
 I did want to share a very cool experience from Saturday with you.  I got an Etsy convo from a customer in California. She was looking at one of the Merida tutus I had listed, the one that Lucy is wearing.  It's hunter green on a black crotchet-elastic waist.  She wanted to know if it would be possible to get it with gold accents.  I thought, "How perfect is that?!" She wanted it in a larger size than the crotchet-elastic  waist accommodates so I ended up using an elastic waist instead, which left out the black so I added some black ribbon to keep that color in the scheme.  I think it turned out really cute.  It just goes to show you what can happen when  customer makes a suggestion.  I always tell people to ask me if they have an idea of what they would like in a tutu but they just can't find it. Chances are that, working together, we can come up with something even better than either of us on our own!

My third Merida tutu turned out so pretty!

What would your perfect tutu look like?