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Justin and I are going to Disneyland in a couple weeks!  I sported mouse ears when I was a kid and I thought it’d be fun to do it again as an adult!  At first I scoured Ebay and Etsy for some ears… but I found that they don’t come cheap.  The cheapest ones were actually sold by DIY’ers so I thought I could give it a go myself and save some money in the process.

Everything I had was already here at home so this project cost nothing!

What you’ll need:

  • Two old greeting cards, or two scraps of cardboard you can fold down
  • Scotch tape
  • Fabric pins
  • A circle template (I used a large lotion container)
  • A thin headband
  • An old black T shirt you don’t mind cutting up
  • A black lace remnant
  • A white pencil (I actually used a cheap $0.99 white eyeliner)
  • Sewing machine (or you can hand sew)
  • Red or pink felt to make a bow (see my bow tutorial here)
  • Hot glue

Here’s my folded card, headband and my template (old Bath and Body Works lotion tub)

Use whatever is around the house (perhaps a mug?) to trace your template onto the folded side of the card.  Leave about 1.5″ or so of fold.  Cut out.

The headband will slip through the card fold. If you want, reinforce the fold with scotch tape.

Lay your t-shirt flat, and place the cardstock on top as a guide.  Cut out your t-shirt fabric to size.  You’ll end up with two layers.

Cut out two squares of lace of the same size as your t-shirt fabric.

Sandwich the lace (with the right sides facing in) between the two layers of t-shirt fabric.

Pin the layers together and trace around the cardstock with your pencil.

Sew the layers of fabric together on the white markings with your sewing machine.  If you decide to hand sew this, the right sides of the fabric should face out. (Lace, T shirt, T shirt, Lace)

Trim the fabric

Turn the ear inside out.  Roll up your cardstock and stuff inside.

Flatten out the cardstock inside the ear.

I couldn’t get a good picture of this, but open up the fold of the card stock and carefully slip your headband through.  (This is where the reinforcing scotch tape comes in handy.  If the cardboard rips, you can scotch tape the card stock to the cardboard and then sew your fabric over the headband.)

Optional:  My sewing wasn’t perfect, and there were a few bumps/corners poking out.  I used some hand sewing to tuck these imperfections in.

After slipping the ears on and making sure of the placement I had to hand sew the base of the ears closed.  (You can glue on scraps of fabric on the ear base using hot glue if you don’t feel like sewing here)

Minnie wouldn’t be Minnie without her bow, so we’re going to add one here.

I made a felt red bow using my bow tutorial here, but with a rectangular backing.  The center strip of the bow holds the bow and the rectangle piece together.  I then cut the corners of the rectangle to give it a cute finish.  You can add whatever type of bow you want here.  Or get creative and add a little tiara, or a bridal veil if you wish depending on the occasion! 😉

Using hot glue, I glued the 4 corners of the bow to the ears.

And that’s it!  Hopefully this wasn’t too complicated.  I did this project on the fly and I think it turned out well for an hour of work!  The lace really helps to conceal any sewing mistakes.

Thanks for reading 🙂

♥ E&I