I am a HUGE Disney fan and I’ve actually lost count of how many times I’ve been to Disneyland and Disney World as my parents used to take our family very frequently during our summer vacations. Thankfully, Ryan is ALSO a big Disney fan and we actually went to Disney World during part of our honeymoon two years ago! We wore our Cinderella and Prince Charming “Just Married” pins wherever we went and had a very magical time 🙂
When we were planning our family trip to Tokyo this past June, we knew we HAD to pay Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea a visit as they were very highly rated. Part of the fun of going to Disney parks is getting into the Disney spirit, so I thought I would crochet a special set of Minnie Mouse ears that I could wear during our visits to the theme parks!
I picked up a set of Goody headbands that I could crochet around. The “no-squeeze” tips of these headbands were quite comfy, but of course any headband would do for this project! The little teeth at the top of the headband also provided some grip for the crochet stitches later on…
Materials:
Here is a step-by-step picture tutorial I made showing you how to crochet around a headband! I used pink yarn for this tutorial so it would show up better on camera, but for my actual headband I used black yarn.
This is what my actual black headband with black yarn looked like as I was crocheting around it:
Next I crocheted my mouse ears! I actually crocheted four round circles…
Ears (make 4)
R1: 6 sc in Magic Ring (6 sts)
R2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts)
R3: *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (18 sts)
R4: *Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (24 sts)
R5: *Sc 3, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (30 sts)
R6: *Sc 4, 2 sc in next sc*, rep 6 times (36 sts)
R7: Sc 36
Finish off and leave long end for sewing.
I sewed two ears together (right sides facing outwards) to give the ears more thickness so they would not flop down or be as flimsy. I sewed the two circles together by leaving the braided edges visible
Then I sewed the two thick black ears onto the headband. Of course, you can always adjust the size of your ears if you want them to be bigger! If you want to make a Mickey Mouse Headband, you can simply stop here 🙂
[Update: Some people have been asking me tips on how to attach the ears to the headband so the ears stand up straight! I made sure to attach the ears to the headband by going through both loops of the single crochets of the headband with a good chunk of the ears (the whole single crochets of the last round of ears). I connected about 5-6 single crochets of the ears (or as much as possible) with the headband so it had a steady base without flopping too much. I sewed together these parts multiple times to try and make it more secure too.]
Since I wanted a Minnie Mouse headband, the last part was Minnie’s delicate little bow! Here is the pattern:
Bow:
Ch 11
R1: Starting in second chain from hook, Sc 10
R2-4: Ch 1. Turn. Sc 10
From there, single crochet up the right side of the resulting rectangle, across the top, down the left side and across the bottom, doing three single crochets in each corner. Please see the bow picture from my slippers post HERE for clarification. Scrunch the bow slightly and wrap yarn around the center. Tie a couple knots and attach the bow to one of the ears on the headband.
And here is the finished product: my crocheted Minnie Mouse Ears Headband!
I was so incredibly excited to wear these ears in Tokyo Disneyland, and I knew I had to take a picture in front of the castle!
I had also previously purchased these Hello Kitty frames a couple days before in Shibuya, so I thought I would whip them out for a quick picture too. Little red bows make everything so adorable! It just so happened that both bows were positioned on the same side as well…
I thought I might as well share some photos of our visit to Tokyo Disneyland in this post too since most people are probably more familiar with the American Disney parks! Tokyo Disneyland is extremely popular and can fill up very quickly. Everyone was recommending that we visit during a weekday (trying to avoid weekends or holidays) and go as soon as the park opened. There was already quite a line-up formed when we arrived early, and guests ran into the park as soon as they opened the doors! A big difference between Tokyo Disneyland and other Disney parks is that their “World Bazaar” (their alternative to “Main Street”) is covered by a glass Victorian-style conservatory roof to protect guests from rain and snow.
One of the most popular attractions in Tokyo Disneyland is “Pooh’s Hunny Hunt”, and it differs from the American versions because it uses a “trackless” ride system. There is a master computer that generates random paths for the honey pots that you ride in, and since there are many different variations possible, apparently each journey through this ride is unique! We really enjoyed this cute ride, and the technology was very cool!
This ride typically has one of the longest wait times in the park, so we ran to get a Fastpass for “Pooh’s Hunny Hunt” as soon as the park opened. The park filled up so quickly that we were only allowed to get one fastpass for the whole entire day!
Snacking on Disney treats is another highlight for us when visiting the parks! While they did offer the typical churros, popcorn stands were everywhere and were extremely popular as it was common to see long line ups and many people carrying commemorative popcorn buckets. Their variety of flavors was very unique and unlike those typically offered in North America! We tried our best to sample most of the flavors 🙂 Just outside of Pooh’s Hunny Hunt was the honey popcorn…
The soy sauce and butter popcorn had the longest line-up out of all the stands!
This flavor seemed to be the most popular, but we weren’t blown away by it…
Even though caramel popcorn was not a unique flavour, we had to buy some since it’s such a classic!
We ended up really liking the curry popcorn! We loved eating Japanese curry on our trip, and the tasty savory flavour of this popcorn made it one of our favourites 🙂
Some more sweet popcorns that we tried included strawberry popcorn and milk tea popcorn. Both were very good. We love drinking milk tea, so the milk tea popcorn ended up being one of our favourites as well! Overall, we had a fun time locating different popcorn stands and snacking on such a variety of flavours.
Another treat that I really loved in Tokyo Disneyland was their apple popsicle! It was incredibly sweet and refreshing. We snacked on this while waiting in line for an attraction called “Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek” in which you use a flashlight to search for hidden monsters (making it different than the Monsters Inc ride in California Adventure). We ended up waiting the longest for this popular ride (more than 1.5 hours) since all the fastpasses had been distributed early on…
Here are some more photos in front of the castle, taken with the Hipstamatic on my iPhone 🙂 I ♥ Disney!
Ryan and I in front of the castle…this trip brought back memories of our honeymoon two years ago!
My sister Ashley and I! Ashley sported these little clip-on Winnie the Pooh ears she bought from Hong Kong Disneyland when we visited a couple years ago (I bought matching Piglet ears during that trip). Don’t our dainty little ears look so cute?
Everyone visiting Tokyo Disneyland really got into the Disney spirit as the vast majority of guests were sporting some sort of Disney headwear. I saw some people wearing hats like this one pictured below which I thought was hilariously cute! The characters had massive heads with tiny little bodies in the back….it reminded me of amigurumi with the disproportionately large head and undersized extremities!
Many Japanese girls were wearing these oversized floppy bows and they looked incredibly kawaii! I ended up buying this light pink polkadot bow headband (the bow is detachable) and sparkly red bow scrunchie to wear for future Disney trips. I wasn’t sure if they were selling them in the American theme parks, so I thought I might as well pick these up as my Tokyo Disney souvenirs!
Tokyo Disneyland also had a baby gift store in Fantasyland and I saw this cute pajama dress that was very fitting since I was 21 weeks pregnant when we visited the parks in early June! I didn’t end up buying it, but my parents bought an adorable Winnie the Pooh outfit for our baby 🙂 Even though I wasn’t able to go on some of the “high thrill” attractions because of my pregnancy, I still had a very fun time in Tokyo Disneyland with the yummy snacks, fun attractions and great shows. I would love to visit again…if only it weren’t so far away!
The neighbouring park Tokyo DisneySea was VERY unique and unlike any Disney park we had visited before. Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate when we visited this park the next day as it rained the whole time. I can do a separate blog post on that park if anyone is interested! We have many many photos from our Tokyo trip so perhaps I can do more travel blog posts in the future…
I hope you enjoyed this long post showing you how to crochet your own Minnie Mouse Ears Headband as well as our experiences in Tokyo Disneyland! It’s neat being able to put your own touch on the iconic Mickey/Minnie Mouse Ears, and many people definitely did a double take when they saw me wearing this headband walking around the park. It felt very special since I was the only one wearing these! You can easily adapt this pattern to make different ears (e.g. yellow yarn for Winnie the Pooh, make triangle shapes for cat ears). Try making these for your next Disney trip or even as a part of your Halloween costume! Let me know how it goes, and I would love to see pictures 🙂
I know there are other big Disney fans out there! What are some of your favourite Disney rides and snacks? I love “Peter Pan’s Flight”, “Pirates of the Caribbean” and “Indiana Jones Adventure”, and some of my all-time favourite snacks are the Dole Whip Float, honey-roasted almonds and blue raspberry slush! Let me know in the comments below 🙂 You can follow me on facebook, twitter and instagram (@AllAboutAmi) for more updates as well! Have a magical time making these ^-^
This pattern is an original pattern by Stephanie Lau of All About Ami. Please do not claim this pattern as your own. If you wish to share this pattern, you may link to this pattern but please do not reprint it on your site. You may keep a copy for your own personal use but please DO NOT sell the pattern or distribute it.
You may sell products made from this pattern but please clearly credit the design to me, Stephanie Lau of All About Ami, and provide a link to my blog www.AllAboutAmi.com. Permission is NOT granted for mass production or factory manufacturing of any kind. Thank you for being respectful and for your understanding!
