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Minnie Ears Tutorial

Behind The Scenes Costume DIY Fancy Dress Minnie Minnie Ears Tutorial

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!

 

 
So, to begin with you need your glitter fabric, your circle object to draw around and a pen or pencil. Obviously as I’m using black I will be using a white pencil so it shows up better. ** if you’re using white or any lighter colours I’d advise not to use a pen as it can sometimes leak with the glue onto the edges or show through when glued together. Probably best to use a pencil and do it as lightly as possible to avoid ruining the ears.
I use this mug for all of our hand made Minnie Mouse ears. You can use anything that is a circle and around the right size that you would like. I use to use a sellotape or the top lid of one of our jars (like a sweet shop jar) Experiment with some circles by drawing around them on some paper or card and place on top of your head to find the right size for you. (Maybe do this when everyone is out so you don’t get any weird looks?!)

Draw around two circles straight across from each other which will make one ear. You can always use a ruler to make sure they’re exactly straight across from each other but I’m more of a ‘do it by eye’ person-cough-designer.

And repeat for the second ear and you should end up with something that looks like this. You can draw two lines on each ear connecting the ear to the other one to remind you to keep them together. I’ve made so many that I don’t do it anymore and forgot to add it on here -oops! If you’re not sure what I mean the next few images might help make more sense for you!

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, if you were unsure earlier when I said about joining the ears together – this should help explain how I mean! The headband will be going in the middle of the joins


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.

I then keep folding it at that size over and over until I come to the end of the net. And you can just trim any end off if there is anything left over (see image below) Now is probably a good time to cut a strip of net to tie your bow together once you’re ready. I usually have a 2-3″ wide strip so it’s thick and strong to tie with.
Next, what I do is I pinch the fabric together, right in the middle to make the bow shape you can see in the last image here and then you need to tie it so it stays in the bow shape.
Make sure that you still have quite long lengths either side of your tied bow so you can wrap it around the headband. Wrap it around as many times as you like or until you’re happy it’s secure and you are happy with how it looks.
You can also add little details to match your favourite Disney Princess theme!
Here are our Little Mermaid inspired ears in green glitter fabric with lilac sparkle hair bow and a 'dinglehopper' detail. (Found on eBay!)
These Belle inspired ears are made in gold glitter fabric and a gold sparkle glitter bow that is finished off with a red rose detail. (Also found on eBay)

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.

 

 



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  • rochelle on

    How would l attach a veil to this and at what stage ???


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