How to Sew a Crazy Hat
You can sew a basic crazy top hat using alternating colors of felt, such as red and white felt for a "Cat in the Hat" look, or your favorite team or school colors. After you've sewn the basic top hat, you can add embellishments to turn it into a flower pot hat, a shooting star hat or even a magician's hat with a rabbit popping out. You can also adjust the height of the felt strips to make the hat taller or shorter, and adjust the width of the strips to make the hat larger or smaller. Use a 1/4-inch seam allowance to sew all the hat seams.
Things You'll Need
- 3/4 yard of felt
- 1/4 yard of felt in contrasting color
- Scissors
- Measuring tape
- Straight pins
- Thread
- Sewing machine
- Iron and ironing board
- Large piece of paper or newspaper
- Assorted felt squares (optional)
- Pipe cleaners (optional)
- Glue (optional)
Instructions
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1
Cut two rectangles of felt, each 3 inches high by 24 inches wide. Cut another two rectangles the same size from the contrasting felt.
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2
Place one rectangle and one contrasting felt rectangle together, lining them up along the edges. Pin, then stitch them together along one long edge. Sew the other two rectangles together the same way.
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3
Unfold the rectangles and press the seams flat. You can either press the seams open, or press them toward the darker fabric if the seam would show through the lighter colored fabric.
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4
Place the two pieces right sides together, so that the seams are on the outside, and so that the colors alternate. Stitch them together along one long edge. Unfold the pieces and press the seam flat.
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5
Bring the ends of the felt together, with the seams on the outside. Make sure the colored stripes line up, then pin the ends together. Stitch the ends together, forming a tube.
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6
Place the end of the tube on the piece of felt and trace around it. Cut out this circle of felt to use for the top of the hat.
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7
Place the circle for the top of the hat on a large piece of paper and trace around it. Draw another circle 4 inches larger than the top of the hat all the way around. Cut out this large paper circle, then cut out and discard the small paper circle in the center. This will be the pattern for the hat brim.
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8
Use the paper patterns to cut two pieces of felt for the brim of the hat. Sew these two circle together along the large outer edge, then turn them right side out. Press the seam flat, and topstitch along the outer edge.
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9
Pin the inner edge of the brim to the right side of the end of the tube, and sew them together.
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10
Turn the hat inside out and pin the circle for the top of the hat to the open end of the tube. Sew the circle to the end of the tube and turn the hat right side out.
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Tips & Warnings
Make a crazy flower pot hat by cutting flowers from assorted colors of felt. Glue the flowers to the ends of green pipe cleaners. Poke the pipe cleaners through the top of the hat. Cut the ends of the pipe cleaners shorter, if needed, to make sure they won't poke the wearer's head, and tie the ends of the pipe cleaners together with thread or string.
Make a crazy shooting star hat by cutting stars from yellow or gold felt. Glue the stars to the ends of pipe cleaners, and attach them to the hat as described for the flower pot hat.
Make a crazy magician's hat by cutting a small white bunny from felt and sewing it to the top of the hat, so that it looks like it's popping out of the hat.
Use caution when working with scissors, pins, irons and sewing machines.
References
- Photo Credit old derby hat with hat box image by David Smith from Fotolia.com
