Getting Crafty: Snow White Inspired Minnie Mouse Ears

I love the Minnie Mouse ear hand bands sold at the Disney Theme parks.  I was thrilled when I saw there were some villain inspired ones, however, the evil queens ears (the apples on the wire) left a lot to be desired!  I so wanted to like them too.  I decided to try out my crafty-ness and make my own pair of Snow White inspired ears.  I spent a bunch of time watching videos and reading how-to articles, but most of them were for children (really?  Kids like these too? who knew!) and the ears were not like the plush versions you find in parks.  So I came up with my own version.  Here are my materials:

Here are the supplies needed: red and blue felt, yellow sequin ribbon, hot glue, thread (red and blue) and needle, foam sheet, fabric scissors, head bands (from Target) and batting (not shown).

And this is the process I used:

First, I came up with a concept sketch.  I wanted the headband itself to be yellow, but decided that that would no work well because the blue ears go around the headband.  So I changed that right away.  As you can see from the sketch, I meant the bow to be much smaller too.

Every template I tried was much smaller than I wanted (I am measuring against a pair of real Minnie ears.)

I ended up enlarging the template making a custom version.  I traced that and cut out two of blue felt

Next I stitched around the edges leaving a small area so I could stuff the ear. 

I turned the ear inside out and put in two foam circles.

I cut out four of these foam circles, two for each ear.

I put batting on both sides of the foam circles.

Next I cut felt that was twice as large as the thickest part of my hair band.  The felt sheets were not long enough to fit so I ended up using two pieces.

Wrap and glue the felt around and then trim-off excess felt

Next, slide ears into position and stitch the ears closed.

Time to start with the red - cut out two pieces of red for bow.

Cut a hole in the middle of the back and stitch around the entire bow

Turn bow right side out through the hole in the back

Make some gathering stitches and sew up the hole in the back (it will get covered - doesn't have to be pretty).  Cut some more felt to make a band in the middle of the bow.  I folded mine over to make it thicker and keep the edges pretty.

 I spent some time doodling the accents for the ears (inspired by Snow White's sleeves)

Cut four out - two for each ear, being sure to flip one of them backwards.

I used hot glue to attach the accents

I also hot glued the yellow sequin ribbon onto each side of the head band

And on the bow

 

Attach the bow by stitching it to the area you sewed close on the ears

And there it is...my finished product!

 I want to make a few changes in the next version.  I feel the bow is too big and I got the ears just a little off center, but otherwise, I'm ready to rock my Disney side!