Reusable fabric crown with number badges

This reusable fabric crown is a great sewing project for beginners, and is good for a quick and easy project to celebrate a birthday! 

As this crown has a set of removable numbers, you can start your own family traditions.

In this tutorial, I will show you the step-by-step instructions on creating this adorable fabric reusable crown. Grab your Brother sewing machine and let’s get started!  

Materials needed

• Crown and badge template: download using the button below 
• Cotton fabric, it’s a great scrap buster! Choose two different fabrics so you can make a reversible crown: 45 x 20cm each  
• Thin batting: 45 x 20cm 
• Ribbon for the back ties: two colours, I used approx. 1m of each colour (measure against your child’s head, and remember to make it bigger so the crown fits as the child grows. If you’re making this to fit all members of the family, measure your own head!) 
• Glitter felt for numbers: 1 x A4 piece 
• Felt sheets: enough to fit 10 x 5cm diameter badges onto (or use multiple scrap pieces) 
• 7 x mini pompoms (one for each point of the crown) 
• Brooch backing blanks or hook and loop fastener (like Velcro) 
• Hand embroidery thread for example stranded cotton or pearl cotton no 8 
• Fabric glue 
• Matching sewing thread 
• Decorative thread (optional) 

Equipment needed 

• Sewing machine – I used the Brother F560
• Scissors 
• Notions: pins, removable pen, hand sewing needle 
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks 

Download here

How to

Cutting the pieces

• Fold your cotton fabric in half and place the crown template up against the fold of the fabric (see image below, fold and place the crown on a short side). Cut around the crown piece and repeat this step for the second piece of cotton and the batting fabric. You will need two pieces of cotton and one piece of batting. 
• Cut out the circle template from your felt sheets. Depending on how many number badges you want will determine how many circle badges you cut! I made 10 – incorporating the numbers 0 to 9. 

I used my phone screen and traced the numbers onto the glitter fabric by placing the fabric on top of my phone. Little tip, use word or google docs and type the numbers you want and re-size them to be a big font, and then you can trace them! Make sure the font is a nice chunky one. Alternatively, you could cut these out using a Brother ScanNCut.

Step 1

Cut each ribbon into two 50cm pieces. Place the end of one piece of ribbon of each colour on each of the short sides of the batting crown piece, with the cut edges of the ribbon aligned with the edge of the batting. I have designed the crown to have one of each colour ribbon on each side – however feel free to just use one colour of ribbon. Lay the ribbons facing in towards the centre of the crown. Lay your crown pieces in the following order: 

• Cotton 1 – right side up. 
• Cotton 2 – wrong side up (right sides facing Cotton 1) 
• Batting on top with ribbons in the centre of the crown (so you don’t sew them into your seam allowance). 

Step 2

Step 3

Clip all the points: snip the seam allowance off close to the stitching across each tip, then snip diagonally to the tip, without cutting through any stitching. Snip into each downward dip. This will help to give you crisp points and flat valleys that will not pucker. Also cut/snip into the v of the crown seam allowance as close as you can get without cutting through your stitching. Trim the batting out of the seam allowances. 

Tip: use strong, sharp scissors that cuts right to the tip.

Step 4

Turn the crown with the right sides out, making sure all the points are nicely turned through. Use a point turner tool to help manoeuvre the points out. Give it a good press with your iron, all the way around, making sure the seam allowance of the bottom opening is folded to the inside when pressing. Pin the opening closed, and top stitch all the way around the crown to add a nice edge stitch detail.

Tip: you could use a contrasting thread for your topstitching to add a nice detail. You could even use a metallic thread to match your glittery felt – just remember to use the right needle and slow your sewing speed if using metallic thread. If you want to know which needle to use for which project, bookmark this handy blog post. 

Step 5

Using fabric glue, glue the numbers onto the circles. I like to place a pattern weight or something heavy on top to make sure the numbers adhere nicely to the fabric.  

Step 6

Sew a blanket stitch around the outside of the circle badges with a hand sewing needle and embroidery thread – this gives them strength as well as adding a nice decorative finish.  

Step 7

Hand stitch the small pompoms to the tips of the crown points. Double your thread, make a double or triple stitch in the point, and stitch several times through the pompom, making sure it’s nice and secure. If the pompom has a core, make sure to sew through the core. Tie off the end with a small double or triple stitch before trimming the thread right where it meets the fabric. To make sure your tie off stitches are invisible by making them right at the top of the points, so the pompoms will cover them. 

Step 8

Using a hot glue gun, glue brooch backing blanks or the hook side of the hook and loop fastener to the back of the badges. If you’re using hook and loop fastener, remember to hot glue a piece of the loop side onto the centre front of your crown too! 

That’s it! It’s a simple project, but a lovely idea to gift to someone celebrating a birthday. It’s also a great reusable heirloom you can get out each year as a family birthday tradition. You could even make this out of your kid’s favourite old clothes to make it even more special.