How to Make Crazy Hats for Kids
Make a crazy hat for a kid by knitting or crocheting plastic grocery bags into the hat shape and then adding the accoutrements that will make it even crazier. This particular hat will be a crocheted bunny hat suitable for wearing while gathering Easter eggs or just because you feel like it. The project works up quickly with large sized needles or hook and it will definitely be waterproof, non-biodegradable and worthy of heirloom status.
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Things You'll Need
- Several white plastic bags
- Scissors
- H hook
- Floral wire
- Pink acrylic paint
Instructions
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1
Make the "plarn" (plastic yarn) by laying a plastic bag flat and cutting off the curved top and seamed bottom. Cut the remaining sleeve of plastic into ¼-inch strips. Join the strips into one continuous length by passing one loop through another and then back through one end of the original loop making a small knot. Pull tight and keep going until you have many yards of plarn. Wind it into a ball for easiest use when crocheting.
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2
Chain 3 with your crochet hook. Join together at the first chain and continue single crocheting in each stitch around and around until you have formed a circle of crocheting the size of the top of your child's head.
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3
Form a side flap and tie end by measuring the number of stitches on the edge of the circle that will be needed to form a flap down the side of your child's ears and cheek to her chin line. Attach the plarn and single crochet the number of stitches you need to begin the side flap. Work these stitches in a single crochet until the flap reaches just under your child's ear in length. Reduce each row by crocheting the first two stitches together each time until the piece has only one stitch left. Make the under-chin tie by chaining a tie string of the appropriate length. Repeat for the other side.
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4
Embellish your basic tie-on hat with bunny ears. Return to the row where you began your side flap and single crochet as many stitches into the edge of the head circle as you will need to make the width of the base of a bunny ear. Work back and forth on each continuing row until the ear is almost as long as you want it to be. Begin to decrease on each row according to directions and on the last stitch, finish by pulling the plarn through and weaving it back into the ear. Make the second one on the other side.
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5
Make the ears stand up. On the inside of the hat, at the edge of the bunny ear, feed a length of white floral wire up the sides of the ear to the tip, and then back down the other side of the ear and into the inside of the hat. Wind the wires together and tuck the ends up inside the hat. This gives the ear a bendable shape. Repeat with the other ear.
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6
Add the pink. When the ears are shaped, take a small amount of pink paint and give the inside of each ear a bit of color to define the inside of the ear from the outside. Form the wire of the ears so that they curve. Tie on the hat and let your child hop away.
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Tips & Warnings
You can easily alter the hat with other shaped ears. Make yellow and black stripes for a bee's bonnet. Make circular tube ears and paint the hat swamp green for a Shreck hat.
