Easy Felt "Ogre" Ears...or Alien Antennae...or Eye Stalks

My daughter belongs to a non-profit youth theatre group. They just wrapped "Shrek, the Musical". It was amazing!

Anyway, just for fun, I had an idea to make Shre...err, "ogre" ears. It is very easy and they came out wonderfully. I made a bunch and we sold them as a fundraiser during intermission. We sold out during every show. It gave me a laugh to sit in the back of the theater and see all the green ears bobbing about during the second act :-)

If your not into Shrek or ogres...These would work great as alien antennae or glue some plastic eyes into the dip on the end and you have eye stalks. Glue them to barrettes, headbands, or straight to a costume headpiece. Lots of uses for these.

I hope you have as much fun with them as we did.

• pattern for ears
• pattern for barrettes (if your gluing to a headband, you don't need this)
• 2 barrettes (pattern works for rectangular not oval or tapered) or a plastic headband
• felt (half a 9"x12" craft sheet is enough for 1 pair)
• needle and thread
• blunt pencil (not sharp, it will poke through your felt)
• straw
• a small bit of stuffing/fiber-fill (not pictured)
• white glue & a small dish to mix it in
• hot glue
• scissors

You will need to cut out two pieces of each, two ears and two barrettes.

Now you are going to sew the ear pieces and barrette covers. I used a sewing machine but you could also hand sew this.

Stack the two ears pieces on top of each other, matching all edges so it looks like one piece. Pinch in the middle and turn each piece out so you have a left and a right ear. This is the only complicated part of the whole thing, mostly because it's hard to describe. Sew up each side to make tubes. When laid flat, it should look like the picture.

Fold each barrette piece in half and sew the side and bottom.

Now that you have the pieces sewn, you are going to turn each of the ears and the barrette covers right side out. I found that it is easier to turn the barrette covers if you slide a straw inside and then use a blunt pencil to poke it into the end of the straw and slide the cover up onto the pencil.

Ok, let's make the ears. Place a small amount of stuffing in each ear, down into the tube. using a needle and thread, loosely baste around the edge of the top of the ear. Pull the thread end tight and tie them closed.

Now, place your thumb over the tied bit and push/slide it down toward and slightly into the tube end. This makes the outer shell of your ear. When you have both of them done, place the ears next to each other, you should have a left and a right, the shells of the ears should not be going in the same direction.

Now get your barrettes ready...if your using a headband, you can skip this part.

Slide a barrette into ear cover. Using hot glue, fold the edges over and glue in place.

Trim the end so that when it is folded down, it will be flush to the edge of the felt under the clip part of the barrette. Hot glue in place.

Do the same for the other barrette.

Now it's time to finish the ears. Clip around the narrow end with your scissors, like fringe or fingers. Use a pencil to push a little more stuffing into the tube. The stuffing should end right where the "fingers" start. Now with a hot glue gun, start gluing down the fingers. I like to start with the finger that has the seam and then alternate side to side until they're all glued down.

Hot glue the ear to the front/top side of the closed end of the barrette, the side that doesn't open. Place the seam of the ear facing the end of the barrette. Do the other one. Yay! Ears! or antennae!

If you're using a headband. Hot glue them in place. Ogre ears sit a little low on the headband, just above your ears is about right.

You could be done here, but to make your ears a little more finished, go to the next step.

Ok, this part is easy but it takes the most time because it has to dry. Mix equal parts of white glue to water. Then dip the cone end of your ear into the mixture and work/mold the ear into a nice shape. Don't worry, the glue will dry clear and will not be shiny. It just makes the end of the ears stiff. Place them somewhere to dry. This could take several hours.