How to Make Dinosaur Hats

Most children love dinosaurs. Their fascination with them has made dinosaurs the subject of numerous books and movies. They're also a popular Halloween costume. These hats offer a way to let your child express his interest in dinosaurs by wearing one on his head. Directions are included for how to make a hat with a pterodactyl. Look at the illustration included here to see how it will look on the top of the baseball cap.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Green baseball cap
• Corrugated cardboard
• Green fabric
• 1 styrofoam ball, 4 or 5 inches wide
• Green florist's wire
• Needle and thread
• Hot glue gun

1. Cut a piece of corrugated cardboard about 12 inches wide to form the wings. Curve them like swallow's wings as in the sketch. Trace the cardboard onto the green fabric, and cut out the wings you've traced. Glue the fabric to the wings, covering the cardboard completely. Leave the middle section loose enough so you can sew it to the baseball cap once the pterodactyl is done.

2. Cut two pieces of florist's wire around 2 inches long each. These wires will support the neck.

3. Cut the styrofoam ball in half. Half will form the head, the other half the body. Cut two pieces of fabric large enough to cover each half. Attach the fabric to each piece of styrofoam, with the smooth fabric on the rounded part and the cut side on the flat bottom. Attach the fabric by sewing a seam to pull the sides together underneath.

4. Cut two long straight pieces of cardboard for the back legs. Scallop the ends to look like claws. Glue green fabric onto the legs to cover them. Sew the covered legs to the dinosaur's back so they stick out behind him.

5. Sew one piece of covered styrofoam to the dinosaur's back over his legs between his wings (round side up). Stick the wires into the styrofoam on his back, making them parallel and a few inches apart. Bend them upward as if he's stretching his neck out. Stick the loose ends of the wire into the other piece of styrofoam (round side up) to attach the head to the body. Cover the exposed wires with green fabric to fill in the neck.

6. Make a beak from cardboard shaped like a long narrow triangle. Cover the cardboard by gluing on green fabric. Press the beak into the styrofoam, using scissors to cut the fabric if necessary. Color in the eyes with a black marker.

7. Sew the completed pterodactyl to the baseball cap.

Tips & Warnings

• Try experimenting with other dinosaurs to create other hats using the basic body described here. For triceratops, you might use small styrofoam cones to make the horns. For stegosaurus, you'd need two rows of triangular cardboard plates stuck in along his spine.