President's Day -- What a celebration!

I told Booger that I was going to make him the President of the United States:

Here's how I made him into President Lincoln--I made him a hat with a beard!  I used 1 piece of black felt, a small record, some black fleece scraps, 2 buttons, and a piece of 1/2" wide elastic (I used white, but I would use black elastic if I had it to do over again...), and some glue.  I did use my sewing machine on this project.

1) I folded the felt the long way, leaving about 3/4" single layer felt at the bottom.  I sewed the felt the long way along the bottom of the double layer felt and right along the top of the double layered felt.

2) Fold right sides together and sew the hat along the short sides of the felt.  Cut small notches in the single layer felt at the bottom.

3)  Flip the hat inside out so that the seams are on the inside of the "hat." 
4)  Attach the elastic to the small record.  {Amount of elastic?  I used the dogs as a guide, but the elastic will stretch out as you add the beard.  You may want to go just a little smaller than you think you need.}  You may have a better idea of how to put holes in the record than I had, but this is what I did:  I melted a small hole into the little record on each side of the label.  (My husband thought you could drill a small whole--but I haven't tried it.  I went the pyro route.)  Then I put a button on the top of the record and used it to anchor the elastic by hand-sewing the elastic to the button...so my layers were button - record - elastic.  I did this on each side.

5)  I used a glass that was about the same circumference as the hat as an anchor when I glued the top of the hat to the record.  The notches are what is actually glued to the record, so I put glue on the notches and worked them under the glass and then let it dry.

The glass is in the middle...holding the notches where I want them to be...

6)  I cut small strips out of some left over black fleece I had (about 1/2" by 5") to tie to the elastic to make the beard.  You could use whatever black leftover you have--yarn, felt, cotton...use your imagination.  You could "tie" the strips or use more of a latch hook type technique (which is what I used):

I did not put the beard all the way across the elastic because President Lincoln just had a chinny beard AND that would have removed the elasticity from the elastic...

Now for the result!

Lola got to try on the top hat before the beard was added...she's a pretty girl after all...no beard for her!

"This is not what I had in mind!"  Booger--you're so funny!

I think Shiloh channels President Lincoln the best...he has sad, tired eyes--just like President Lincoln.

Izzy, the cranky cat, was not impressed...

The hat is being used in the President's Day Display in the Children's Department -- on a teddy bear.

Now for some obvious disclaimers/warnings: 
*  If you go the pyro route on the record--be careful.  Hot things burn...Burns hurt...
*  Your dog/cat/critter really doesn't want to wear the hat for an extended period of time...so don't leave it on said critter when said critter is not supervised.  Critter will destroy the hat, and since there is a record and buttons, the dog/cat/critter will probably cut their mouth, their paw, their jugular vein and bleed to death OR they will swallow pieces of the record or the buttons and get a bowel blockage OR you get the picture...it may result in a hideously expensive trip to the vet and/or death.
*  Don't use a record worth lots of money...it will make you sad when you find out you ruined a record that would have made you rich...

Have a great day, and take care of you!