Baby Sunflower Head Wrap: a simpler cure for baby fever than having an actual baby

 

Sunflower baby head wrap, made from fleece and felt.

So, my friends had a baby, and she is really cute. Her name is Harper.

I was like, Dude, I WANT ONE OF THOSE TOO. But, like, I still have a couple years of this dang PhD left, so I should probably hold off for now. In the meantime, I consoled myself by making a head wrap for this existing baby. 

Harper (someone else's baby), wearing  the sunflower head wrap I made.

One day, I saw this classmate of mine (an adult) wearing a fleece head wrap with a flower on it. She told me her sister had made it for her, so I decided I would make one for this baby. Here is the tutorial (from Delia Creates) that my classmate's sister used to make an adult "ear warmer":
http://www.deliacreates.com/ear-warmerssimplified-tutorial/

I changed a few things and invented my own flower embellishment, so I will talk about those modifications. 

YOU WILL NEED:
-1/4 yard fleece for the head wrap
-Coordinating thread for the head wrap
-Two shades of gold/yellow felt and/or fleece for the sunflower petals (1/4 yard of fleece is plenty, or 2 sheets of felt will do)
-Coordinating thread for the petals
-One sheet of brown felt for sunflower center
-Hot glue
-Barrette back
-2" fold-over elastic
-A 0-6-month-old baby to wear the head wrap.
Probably a girl, if you make a sunflower one, because the patriarchy mostly forbids little boys from wearing stuff with flowers. But hey, the revolution's gotta start somewhere.

How to make the sunflower

The sunflower is made from both felt (the inner petals and the brown center) and fleece (the outer petals). Either material will work; I ended up with felt and fleece so I could get the slight variation in the gold color of the petals.

I kinda based the technique of making the petals on this tutorial for making a felt dahlia: http://www.notmartha.org/tomake/to-make-diy-mothers-day-corsage-felt-dahlia-flower-brooch/

I started by creating these two cardboard templates: one for the outer and one for the inner petals. 

Then I cut the small petals out of the yellow felt, and the larger petals out of the gold fleece.

I chose to sew my petals together at the base. 

Personally, I think people overuse glue guns for crafting.

Admittedly, I learned to sew from my mom, who is from the old school. I think she kinda feels like glue guns are cheating, while hand sewing is the true craftsmanship. I have to agree with her. 

Also, I find it more fun to hand sew things while, like, watching American Horror Story. Granted, if I had an actual baby, I might be more pressed for time. But I don't even have a plant, just a dissertation. So.

I primarily chose to sew instead of glue the bases of the petals because, when I've used hot glue on felt or fabric flowers in the past, I find that it tends to get on the petals, and has the potential to ruin the appearance of the flower.

Make like this many petals.
I think I may have had to make more once I started to assemble the flower. Nbd. 

Ok, but I did use hot glue to secure the petals to a circular felt base (visible in a photo below). You could sew them on, too, but I have indeed found that flowers held together with only thread tend to come apart more easily, at least when I make them. Glue can provide some useful stability, so long as you apply it somewhere that it doesn't become visible and ruin your project.

Secure the larger, outer petals to a circular felt base. Secure them also to one another, in the center.

Secure the smaller, inner petals to the outer petals, and also to one another in the center.

The center of my sunflower is made from brown felt. I based the technique off one of the first felt flower tutorials I ever followed, the "looped mum" from the Crafted Sparrow:
 http://www.thecraftedsparrow.com/2012/04/felt-flowers-tutorials-5-to-choose-from.html

You start with a strip of brown felt. Idk how long it was, like probably just the width of the felt sheet. The strip was probably about 2" wide, but again, idk. Just use your best judgment; it's not, like, an exact science.

(there is no reason the edge is pinked, it just is)

Fold the strip in half and sew along the edge. Again, you could glue this, but I prefer sewing in order to avoid getting glue where you don't want it.

 Now cut some slits in the folded edge of the strip.

Roll it up and sew it together. I guess you can glue if you want, but sewing all this is really not a big deal, so you shouldn't be afraid of it.

I chose to attach the flower to a barrette, rather than directly to the head wrap.

This is for two reasons:
1) the flower can't go in the wash because of the felt and the hot glue. But, like, I hear babies puke and what not, so if bodily fluids somehow get on Harper's head wrap, her parents can still wash it.

2) I hear babies grow real fast, so next year Harper might not even be able to wear this accessory. But she can potentially wear the barrette if she wants, or her parents can clip it onto something else like a bag, an item of clothing, a decoration in the house, whatever.

The barrette is just clipped through a couple slits in the fleece of the head wrap. You could do button holes with your sewing machine if you were concerned about fraying.

Back of the sunflower, which is actually a barrette.
Also, JAMBERRY NAILS!!

Head wrap inspired by Delia Creates: Baby version

So I looked at the template from Delia Creates and changed the sizing for an infant. Since I don't have an actual infant around here to measure, I just consulted the Internet about sizing for baby headbands. According to the chart in this adorable tutorial, a recommended headband size for a 0-6-month-old is 13":
http://scrapbooks-etc.com/2013/10/29/tutorial-tuesday-paper-floral-headpieces/

Because I planned to make a head wrap that attaches with elastic rather than a button (like the original Delia Creates model), I decided the fleece piece itself should be about 12" long. The cardboard template is for half the head wrap.

BUT I had a problem when I tried to make the headband out of a piece of fleece this exact size.
There was not enough seam allowance, so the fleece got all scrunchy when I tried to sew down the edges. Fleece, tbh, is not all that easy to work with. Especially if it has a fair amount of stretch, as this type did (from Hobby Lobby).

This, NO. Seam allowances not wide enough.

So I tried again and cut a piece with an enormous seam allowance:

Yes, Dude, I know what this looks like. IT'S WHERE BABIES COME FROM.
I am also a master feminist so I will not apologize for this allusion to vaginas. Ok?

But yeah so fold the edges over generously, pin, and then cut like a 2.5" piece of fold-over elastic.

Set the fold-over elastic RS to WS of the fleece. Pretty much you will fold the fleece over and catch the elastic with the zig-zag stitch you will run around the entire head wrap.

That is basically it. The zig zag stitch was key, at least for the fleece I was working with, because of the stretch. I ran a double line of it over the edges where the elastic was attached.

Hopefully I will one day finish this eternal degree and maybe have a kid of my own to make stuff for.

Of course, if I had an actual baby, I realize I would also have less time to make stuff, and definitely less time to write in this blog...

...but still. As I say, I am a master feminist, so I believe I have the right to do both, while simultaneously applying the relevant theoretical frameworks.