How to Make a Hood for a Coat

A hood can easily be added to your favorite coat to help you stay dry during a storm.

With the weather turning colder and rainier, you might be pulling your favorite coat out of the closet more often. But some comfortable coats don't have a hood for rainy days, meaning you have to remember your umbrella or get soaked. But you can make your own hood that fits snugly around your head and neck using a few common household supplies and attach it to your coat before the next big storm hits.

Things You'll Need

• Soft tape measure
• Baseball cap
• Sheet of colored waterproof nylon, 18-by-18 inches
• Black permanent marker
• Scissors
• Liquid fabric glue
• Coat
• Package of cotton balls
• Square of fleece fabric, 7-by-7 inches

Instructions

1. Place on end of the soft tape measure on the wearer's hairline, about in the middle of their forehead. Then run the tape measure back over the top of the head and down to where their neck meets their shoulders. Note this distance.

2. Measure the diameter of the inside of the baseball cap. Note this distance.

3. Draw a rectangle on the waterproof nylon with the black marker. The height of the rectangle should be equal to the first measurement you took. The width should be three times the measurement of the cap's diameter. Cut the rectangle from the rest of the nylon.

4. Apply glue along about 1 inch of the bottom edge of the nylon rectangle, and attach this glued edge to the outside of the coat collar. Let the glue dry for 20 minutes; then lay the coat with the attached nylon rectangle flat on the table with the nylon rectangle extended out above the coat.

5. Cut the bill away from the baseball cap. Then place the cap upside down in the near the top of the outstretched nylon rectangle.

6. Wrap the outstretched nylon rectangle around the front and sides of the cap and glue the nylon to the cap. Allow the glue to dry for 20 minutes. There should be a few inches of nylon at the bottom between the wrapped cap and the coat's collar (this area covers the wearer's neck and the back of their head.)

7. Glue cotton balls all around the inside of the cap to form a layer about one-half inch thick. You might need to break the cotton balls apart with your fingers to get them to this size.

8. Measure the diameter of the inside of the hat with the tape measure. Then cut a square from the felt with the four sides equal in length the diameter of the cap. Then glue this felt piece on top of the cotton balls inside the cap to form a warm soft layer for the wearer's head.

Tips & Warnings

• You can skip Steps 7 and 8 if you live in a warmer, rainy climate as this layer might make the wearer too warm.

References

• Alley Cat Scratch: Attaching a Cloak Hood