Monday, August 17

Polar Bear Felt Birthday Crown {free pattern}

We like to keep birthdays pretty simple around here. So simple, in fact, that often the only thing I make for birthdays (apart from some favorite foods, of course) is our traditional birthday crown. And with another birthday just written in the books, we've added a two-year-old polar bear crown to our repertoire!


So far the crowns have all been animal themed, featuring whatever they are interested in at the time... which can change daily with little guys. So it actually works out perfectly that I usually put this activity off until the night before. Fortunately they come together pretty quickly so even starting after the boys are asleep, I know I'll be done in time to hang a few streamers before bed. And that is usually the extent of our birthday preparations - make a crown, hang a few streamers, blow up a few balloons, wrap gifts, and make the birthday boy's requested dessert. We usually pull the whole thing together between their bedtime and ours. It's super low-stress, and we love that we are able to put our time and energy into making the birthday boy feel like the star of the day with a few special birthday traditions and gifts, instead of pouring time into a perfectly pinterest-y day.


What you need:
  • 1/4 yard light blue felt (buying by the yard ensures a long enough piece to wrap around his head. You could also use felt sheets sewn together into a long enough piece.)
  • 1 sheet dark blue felt
  • 1 sheet gray felt
  • 1 sheet yellow felt
  • 1 sheet white felt
  • thread (or tacky glue, if you don't feel like sewing)
  • basic crown pattern

I forgot to trace my polar bears before I attached them to the crown, but you can use the basic pattern above from my octopus crown to create the crown shape and then just free-style some polar bears (or whatever else you want!)


Start by cutting out all the pieces. Here's what I cut from each piece:
  • Yellow: the number 2 (you can make any number you need as long as it's a similar size)
  • Gray: the circle
  • White: two polar bears
  • Dark Blue: the top accent layer of the crown
  • Light Blue: two icebergs and the main crown body (Make sure when you cut the main crown out of the light blue that you leave extra long tails beyond the ends of the pattern paper. You want plenty to fit around his little head!)


To assemble the crown, start from the bottom layer and work your way up. First sew the dark blue accent piece onto the light blue crown body. Then sew the gray circle on. Then the yellow "2." And so on. Once all the layers are attached you can overlap the tails of the crown to make it the size you need and sew the ends together. If you don't want him to see the crown ahead of time, use a piece of string to measure the circumference of his head and use that as a guide to size your crown. I highly recommend doing this before he goes to bed so you don't have to stealthy-ninja crawl into his room to measure while he sleeps!


Then just slip it on your boy in the morning and wish him the happiest of birthdays!


If polar bears aren't his (or her) thing, you could try one of our other crown patterns instead (these are both full patterns):

http://www.morelikehome.net/2014/05/dinosaur-birthday-crown-free-pattern.html

http://www.morelikehome.net/2014/08/octopus-birthday-crown-free-pattern.html

And what's a birthday crown post without a couple birthday boy pictures?

The birthday boy always starts the day with a doughnut run with daddy.

After weeks of wondering what on earth to get for his birthday, we suddenly realized the perfect gift for our throw-everything-he-touches boy was a basketball hoop. He loves it!

He wore his crown all day, even in the pool! As always, the balloons were one of the highlights of the birthday (why do we even buy real gifts?!). We found the kind you bounce with rubber bands at Dollar Tree this year and they were a big hit!

Do you make birthday crowns for your kids? What other birthday traditions do you have?

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