How to Craft Homemade Cowboy Hats

Make your own coyboy hat using a few basic materials

Cowboy hats are an emblem of the American West and its colorful history. In the popular imagination, the hats conjure scenes of cowboys on horseback riding across vast plains, working the ranches and idling in saloons. Today cowboy hats are sported on ranches or in rodeos and sometimes worn as a fashion item or for fancy dress. Although traditional hats are often crafted from felt or leather, you can make a paper cowboy hat inexpensively and easily, and you can customize it to the shape of your head.

Things You'll Need

• 10 large sheets newspaper
• Masking tape
• Colored paint
• School glue
• Length of twine or string

Instructions

1. Lay the sheets of newspaper on top of one another and place them over the top of your head. Fold them downwards, molding them to your head shape. Have a friend wrap masking tape over the paper all around the circumference of your head just above the ears. Don't wrap too tightly as you will want the hat to be comfortable.

2. Lay the hat on a flat surface and roll the edges of the newspaper inwards. On the two sides of the hat, roll straight until you have a rolled rim around the edge of the hats brim. At the front and back curve the newspaper as you roll to create a curved edge. Secure the rolled rims with masking tape all around the brim.

3. Fold a crease into the crown of the hat all the way along the length so that it caves inwards to form a cowboy hat shape. Try the hat on to ensure it is still comfortable and readjust the fold accordingly.

4. Paint the hat. Although cowboy hats are traditionally black, brown or white, you can use any color. Also paint the underside of the brim as this might show when you wear it. Leave to dry overnight.

5. Coat the outside of the hat and underside of the brim in a thin layer of school glue. This will seal the paint and make the hat waterproof, also giving it a little more strength and durability.

6. Tie the twine or string around the inside of the brim of the hat, below the crown, tying tightly in a knot at the front or back.

Tips & Warnings

• Personalize and add color to your cowboy hat by adding feathers or string beads along the twine before you attach the twine the brim.

References

• You Tube: How To Make A Paper Cowboy Hat