One Year Old in a Flash - Birthday Hat and Bib

I have sort of a tutorial for you today... "sort of" because it's so easy it doesn't really require a step by step or pictures of the process.   So I just have the picture of the finished product for you and some simple instructions for making a party hat and bib out of those reusable shopping bags they sell for a buck at discount stores like TJ Maxx & Marshalls (although this project would work for really any type of fabric).

To do this project you'll need one of those shopping bags, some fusible fleece, a regular old cardboard party hat, a hotglue gun, and whatever decoration you want for the top of your hat (you could even go without that if you wanted).  If you have a sewing machine and you don't despise using it, you'll also need some double fold binding tape in a matching color... if you're not quite so friendly with a sewing machine, you could use some coordinating ribbon instead.

All you need to do is cut a big square from the shopping bag and VERY CAREFULLY fuse the fusible fleece to the wrong side (definitely do not touch the iron directly to the bag, only iron on the fleece or a pressing cloth).  Untie the elastic from the store bought party hat & save it for later.  Unstaple or pull apart (if it's glued) the party hat so you can lay it flat.   Use the store bought party hat as a template to cut the now fused fabric from the bag into the right shape (if the hat had tabs to keep it closed, don't bother cutting those into the fabric).  Here's the part where you can decide to sew or not, you can finish the edges of the hat by sewing binding tape all the way around the hat shape you just cut out, or you could just hotglue some ribbon around the bottom edge.  After this step, I embroidered the #1 on the hat, but you could skip that, or maybe applique the number, or practice your hand embroidery skills, if you don't have an embroidery machine.   Now you just roll the hat into the cone shape and run a bead of hotglue along the edge where it meets.  Then, punch 2 holes opposite eachother at the bottom edge of the hat and tie the elastic you took off the store bought version onto your new fancy version.  You could stop there if you'd like, but if you feel like it needs a little something more, you can glue or sew an embellishment into the top of the hat.  I made some curly ribbons (that may be a little post for some other day), sewed them together into a little bunch and hotglued them into the top.  You could also just hotglue a big 'ol pom-pom into the top.

I've already done a detailed tutorial for a bib, so I'll just point you in that direction for the "how to" on how I made the bib.  This was a simpler version of that tutorial though.  I used the same pattern, but I ommitted the pocket, the elastic, and the quilting and used the shopping bag for the front side of the bib (it's a great material for a bib, it's virtually water proof!) and terry cloth for the backside.

Making Liv's party hat and bib was not only a quick project, but it's a much better momento than the silly cardboard hat and plastic bib would've been!  They'll always remind me of this precise moment in time:

Happy Creating!