By Vanessa Coppolla
Did you know that the sock monkey dates back to 1932, when the Nelson Knitting Company added the trademarked red heel to their product? American mothers first made sock monkeys out of worn-out Rockford Red Heel Socks during The Great Depression. Those mamas were our first crafty upcyclers, out of necessity no doubt, but still pretty cool!
My little guy received one of these iconic handmade creatures, made out of a traditional Rockford Red Heel Sock, of course, in his Easter basket this year. They are already the best of friends and I’m sure they will go on lots of great adventures together, although I have a feeling that Mr. Sock Monkey doesn’t appreciate his limbs being gnawed on. Logan loves his sock monkey so much that I decided to plan a sock monkey-themed first birthday shindig for him.
My formal dining room has turned into party planning central, because that is what formal dining rooms are good for. I have a lot of DIY projects in the works and I’m excited to share one of them with you. We’ll be making a fabric birthday hat, sock monkey-style. You can use any type of fabric and embellishments you desire to match your own party. This is a super easy and inexpensive project; no sewing involved.
Materials
Readymade paper party hat
Sock monkey fabric (available from Fabric.com)
Yarn
Rickrack
Tacky glue
Hot glue
Scissors
Directions
Step 1: Take the party hat apart. Place the fabric on your work surface, right side facing down. Lay the hat flat on the fabric and trace around it.
Step 2: Cut 1/2″ around the traced line. You want to leave the extra half inch so you have plenty of fabric to wrap around the hat.
Step 3: Iron the fabric to take out any wrinkles, and start gluing it to the party hat using tacky glue or any other all-purpose glue. Start with gluing one end of the fabric to the back of the hat. Smooth out the glued fabric using your fingers as you go. I found that it was easiest to place glue on small sections of the hat first and then attach the fabric.
Step 4: When you get to the end of the fabric, fold the end of the fabric before gluing it to the hat. This will make a clean, straight line in the back of the hat.
Step 5: Once the fabric is glued around the hat, you should still have a raw edge extending from the bottom edge. In order to neatly glue this fabric to the inside of the hat, cut slits into the fabric all around this edge. Make sure that two of these slits are cut right where the string attaches, so the fabric can be glued around the string.
Step 6: Place tacky glue on the small sections of fabric and attach to the inside of the hat.
Step 7: Hot glue rickrack or other embellishments (feather boa, ribbon, pom poms, etc.) around the hat.
Step 8: To make a pompom for the top of the hat, wrap yarn around a standard letter envelope (or 3-4 fingers) about 30 times.
Step 9: Take the yarn bunch carefully off the envelope and tie another piece of yarn around it at the center. Make a double knot.
Step 10: Cut through all of the loops using a pair of scissors. Trim the pom-pom to your level of desired fluffiness.
(Warning: The bigger the pom-pom, the more top-heavy the hat will be and the more difficult it will be to keep it on a mobile child.)
Step 11: Glue the pom pom right onto the top of the hat, using hot glue.
Step 12: Place on your child right before singing “Happy Birthday.”
About the Author:
Vanessa Coppola crafts from her Arizona home, where she resides with her husband and almost 2-year-old son, Logan. Vanessa is the author of See Vanessa Craft, where she blogs about life as a newish mama and all things crafty.
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