How to make Moana's Flower Crown (with pictures)

"See the line where the sky meets the sea, it caaaaaalls me..."

Can't. Get. Moana. Songs. Out. Of. My. Head.

Moana is all the rage with my three year old girl right now. She is obsessed. I mean, so obsessed that she needed to have her own Heart of Tefiti, and has been begging for her own Moana costume since it came out. But alas, we are poor. 

If you have a Disney obsessed child (I do!) who has to have all of the accessories of all of the princesses (and the dresses, good lord) - and your bank account is screaming "DISNEY SUCKS", then this is the post for you.

Well, it is if you want to give your little girl (or boy, no judgement) Moana's flower crown, anyhow. If you want to give them their very own Heart of Tefiti, see how I made one for my girl, HERE.

I don't want to bore you with a tremendous post that you have to scroll through for miles until you get to the instructions, so here's the gist: We're poor. Daughter wants. I heart my daughter. I want to give her all the things. We're poor. Daughter is so sweet and deserves to have a flower crown. Mommy finds a way.

Also, hello Disney, you don't even sell Moana's flower crown. What the eff.

Here you go; How to make an $11 Moana flower crown (With pictures!)

Michael's Shopping List: 

Water-Resistant Hibiscus Bush  -  $6.49
Paper Wrapped Stem Wire  -  $1.99
Black Cotton Thread  -  $1.79

That's all you have to buy. Unless you have those things already, then YAY YOU!

STEP ONE:

 

Clean the junk off your table and lay out your supplies. You should have:

• Hibiscus bush (Or other tropical flower of choice)
• Stem wire
• Cotton thread
• Scissors
• Music (Because, why not?)

STEP TWO:

1. Cut! This is the part where you cut off your blooms. I know the blooms are removable, but DON'T remove them. You need about two inches (or more if you want more) of stem. So cut about two or three inches below your blooms. There's a little bit of metal wire in there, so you may need to wiggle it to get it to break off. 
2. You don't need to cut the leaves off - They are attached two at a time by just a little hole in the center of the two leaves. You can easily pull them off the stems. Leave the double leaves attached to each other.

STEP THREE: 

 

Now you should have an empty stemmed bush. Throw away the leftover stems. You don't need them.

STEP FOUR:

 

Open up your Stem Wire. For my three year old girl, I wrapped one of them around her head and found that I was about an inch short, so I ended up using two. They bend and twist easily. 

STEP FIVE:

Now you're going to twist the ends of the stems together to form a circle. Make sure your circle is the right size for the head it's going on! Twist it really well, and it will be nice and secure. :)

STEP SIX:

Remember the small hole between your double leaves? Good. You're going to use it. Break out the black thread and cut a piece about three or so inches long. Longer is fine, because you will be tying and can cut it later. Take the piece you've cut and thread it through the little hole.

STEP SEVEN:

 

Now that you have your thread through the hole, go ahead and tie it around stem circle. Knot it and wrap it around a few times to make the leaves attatch nice and sturdy.

STEP EIGHT:

Keep doing step seven until your leaves are evenly spread around the stem circle, and nice and sturdily tied. 

STEP NINE:

Now its time for the flowers. This is where that extra bit of stem you cut off comes in handy. Bend the stem to make a U-shape like shown in the picture. 

STEP TEN:

Next, you want to loop that U-shaped stem around the stem circle, so that the flower is facing outwards. Take the rest of the flower stem and twist it around the steam circle. That will secure your flower, so make sure you twist it nice and tight!

STEP ELEVEN:

Now is a good time check all of your threads, and make sure they are nice and tight and securing the leaves so that they face outward and don't move around too much.

STEP TWELVE:

Repeat step ten until all of your flowers are attached around the stem circle in even intervals. Twist them nice and tight so they don't fall off!

STEP THIRTEEN:

Finally, snip off your extra strings!

Now you can admire your handiwork!