The Minnie theme is so in right now, we’re being flooded with orders for Minnie veils and ears. Our admin Laura also couldn't get enough of them and had the theme for her hen night this year. (And yes, it was that good that my mum and main machinist fell over and broke her wrist. She's just come out of plaster!)
We’ve made these for a couple of years now and never given out any secrets but we thought it was about time to share the magic so, if you wish you can create your very own!
This will be an in depth step-by-step guide and we do hope that you find it easy enough to understand and give it a go yourself. Once you’ve mastered making the ears you can always move onto adding a veil or completely reinventing it!
What You Will Need
- Headband (at least 4-5mm thickness)
- Fabric glue or a glue gun (whatever you work with best)
- Scissors
- Pencil or pen
- Mug/Cup anything circle in the right size to draw around
- Dress Net (if you’re adding a bow)
- Glitter Fabric (glittery like you would. not. believe.)
Now where can you find this magical glitter fabric? You can find lots of different colours over at Josy Rose. They have an amazing website with tons of sparkly things that will inspire you for 50 other projects. There’s usually a link straight to the glitter fabric on their homepage. Postage is also relatively cheap and you can bulk buy the fabric now as well to lower costs more.
Once you have your supplies it is time to get started!
If you have sharp scissors around then that’s great. If not, don’t worry! But you may find you won’t get as neat a circle if you have blunt scissors as it’s harder going. The fabric is quite thick. These are actually dress making scissors that I stole from the Sewing Studio (shh!) but we actually get them from one of those shops that sell everything. They’re up to £20 on eBay and I think we get these from the shop for about £3-£4 and they’re the exact same ones so it’s worth having a look when you’re next out shopping.
Now, you get to glue! I had been talking to Laura whilst I was doing this so I hadn’t really been paying attention to what I was doing. I use Jewel Bond Crafters Pick which can be found on eBay. It dries clear and is non toxic too! Glue gun also works great too.
I usually do circles within each circle. Make sure you have glue on the ear joins and at the bottom near the joins as they’re the important sticking bits. You have to be careful not to put too much glue on as it might end up making them too heavy and floppy but then make sure that you put enough on so that they stick and stand up. I did experiment with having card/cardboard in the middle to make sure they stood up but I wasn’t happy with the overall completed look. If you have any better success with this please let me know!
This may have to be a trial and error for your first one (hopefully you’ll be a pro and do it first time!) but if your first one doesn’t go to plan your second one will so don’t worry! And come on, anything this glittery is well worth it.
Just wipe away any excess glue that you may squeeze out. I don’t get much squeeze out now as I know how much to put on but in the beginning it was everywhere! **Might be best to have baby wipes on hand?
Then I put pins in around the ears connected to the headband to make sure it stays tight and will help keep the ears standing up when it’s dry. You could also put them under a heavy book to keep as flat as possible, I do that as well sometimes.
Now, I like to leave them to dry properly for a day or two (make sure to keep them flat) I find this helps the ears dry harder and less likely to flop. If you’re in a rush you could always place them under a fan or near a window for the breeze.
Once the ears are dry you may need to trim the edges. Some edges may be overlapping and you just need to trim them down to make them look perfect.
Now it's time to make your Minnie Bow!
Once all that is done you’re ready to make your bow! This can be done in plain or sparkle net. If you want sparkle net just search ‘hologram dress net’ on eBay and you’ll find lots of sellers with a variety of colours.
For these size ears I do 4″ bows. I cut a 4″ strip of fabric to make the bow.
So, you get your strip of fabric (it’s completely up to you how big you have it! We have small 3″ bows on our ready made ears) and then fold it over once to how wide – or long you want your bow.
Love these ears but don’t fancy your chances at making them? All our ears can be customised – get in touch! You can also purchase them from our store here
If you use our tutorial we would love to see your finished ears and what you’ve done with them! Please send them in as above or comment below.
If you have any questions or thoughts we’d love to hear them.
How would l attach a veil to this and at what stage ???