“Make one!” She said.
“Anything you say, boss!” Quoth I.
And then I put it out of my mind for a while until the week before my Easter Bonnet was due. I had a great idea. I’d researched it carefully. I’d bought the extra supplies I needed. I just knew it would work. Only it didn’t.
So this is Plan B. And I’ll tell you now that I like it way more than Plan A.
This is how to make an Easter Bonnet from a Paper Plate, Inspired by Philip Treacy. You will need:
A paper plate- any colour you like.
A craft knife
A straw (and I highly recommend a wooden skewer too.) I used a bendy one.
Lots of stickers (I also used butterfly shapes which I cut from some of The Girls’ old art-work using a wonderful butterfly cutter that I have.)
- Take your paper plate and sketch a rough spiral on the central part of it. Using your craft knife, cut it out.
You will need to bear in mind:
a) that the edge of the plate will form the brim of your hat, so don’t draw too close to the brim or your hat will not support itself.
b) That you will need to leave a section of the outer edge of your spiral uncut.
The spiral sticks up from the centre of the ‘hat’ but still needs to be attached to it, just like paper chains need to stay connected to each other. I left a length about the size of my first finger.
c) When you reach the centre of the spiral you will need to make a shape small enough to insert into your straw.
2) Take your straw and insert one end into the small cut you made in the centre of your spiral. Push the skewer into the straw, trimming off the excess. Again you will need to bear in mind that you are securing the end of the straw to the brim of the paper hat so it will need to be shorter that the length of the straw.
3) Secure the bendy length (if you are using a regular straw, this equates to the width of your hat brim) of the straw to the underside of the brim of the hat using sellotape. I’d use quite a few layers for security.
4) As it wibbled quite a bit, I also decided to secure the spiral against the straw in two places using Blu-Tack Sticky Dots. It moved around a lot less when worn after this.
5) You should now have a 3D spiral/cone hat: go mad with stickers and bits and pieces to decorate it from top to bottom.
Parade your flutter of butterflies to the entire World with absolute joy!
love it
Wowsers, I’ll be giving this a go for sure at the weekend! My daughter will be so impressed! Thanks
What ideas would you suggest for a boy (5yo)?
what about bugs and beetles @joanne?
This hat was great for my daughters competition in her school
So cool, I love it!
This looks great! What size was your paper plate?
dinner-sized @kirsten.
I really liked that idea my kids will love that.
My kids love it so much they are making it.
🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
I made a similar one today! Thanks for posting the instructions, they helped immensely. I didn’t want to create a run-of-the-mill Easter bonnet with cardboard and chickens or eggs!
Wow this is something else! We’ll be giving it a go x
awesome idea… will try this for the easter bonnet parade this year
So much fun! thanks so much for sharing on Craft Schooling sunday, it is nice to play hat designer once in awhile!
Great idea! I bet my kids would like this activity!
This is fabulous – going to see if I can make a boyish version for my 2YO for his nursery easter bonnet parade – thanks for the inspiration!
You are very welcome Katie. I have another one that I made to look like an Easter basket which I’m going to add as an edit today.
That is amazing! Sending this to all the parent’s of little girls that I know.
I’m so pleased you like it Helen. It turned out way better than I thought it would too.
I absolutely love this. Can’t wait to give this a go with the girls. A very very cool hat 🙂
Thank you Zing Zing tree. Great name!