Ways to Fold Paper Into a Cowboy Hat
Cowboy hats have long been a part of cowboy lore and, while they once served a functional purpose, today they are often worn simply to complete a classic Western-style look. Real cowboy hats can last 20 years or longer and are valued for the tightness of their weave, but real cowboy hats can also be expensive. If you want a simple cowboy hat to play dress-up, to complete a costume or simply for fun, making a cowboy hat out of paper allows you to get a low-cost version of the classic style hat. Cowboy hats can be made from newspaper or regular paper and can be decorated to look like real cowboy hats or can be fun and creative with unique colors or even glitter and patterns.
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Using Newspaper: The Peak
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Cowboy hats normally have high curves on the side edges and a flatter front, and when you are folding paper into the hat, it can be a bit of a challenge to get the shape exactly right. It is best to do this in two parts, by first fashioning the peak of the hat and then the brim. You can use newspaper as your material when making the hat, since newspaper is a good density and weight that folds easily while still keeping its shape. However, when using newspaper, the hat will not be as easy to decorate since it will have the newsprint on it. To get started using newspaper, you also may need to connect two pages of paper together to have a paper large enough to make the hat (15 x 22 inches). After you have a piece of paper large enough, you can fold the newspaper in half and then fold the corners in, leaving about 5 inches between them in the middle and rear of the paper to fashion a peak.
Using Newspaper: The Brim
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Traditionally, the brim of the cowboy hat was valued because the wide front helped to shield cowboys' eyes from the sun and to keep rain off of their faces. While your newspaper hat isn't likely to provide you with protection from inclement whether, it does need to have both the hat and brim folded in the correct style to be recognized as a cowboy hat. To create the distinctive brim, start by folding the side opposite the peak of the hat in half, bringing the bottom edge of the newsprint up to meet the bottom of the folded corners. Fold the bottom corners of the brim up so that their points meet the at top of the brim. This will make a basic hat brim but doesn't yet have the classic curved sides found on cowboy hats. To create those sides, you need to fold the brim up on each side and attach it to the side of the hat with tape or staples. Finally, for a finishing touch, hold the top of the hat in one hand and flatten the peak with your other hand from the inside to create the cowboy hat shape. This will allow your hat to curve along the sides while still having a flat front, making clear to everyone that the hat is the classic cowboy style.
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Using Square Paper: The Brim
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If you don't have newspaper handy or don't want a newsprint hat, you can use a plain square sheet of white paper. The hat will be a plain white instead, so you can decorate the hat to your liking. You can also select the thickness of your paper, either choosing thinner paper that is easier to fold or thicker paper that will allow your hat to hold up for a longer period of time. When using square paper, the process begins in a similar manner to using newsprint. You need to be sure your paper is no less than 20 inches by 20 inches to make the cowboy hat big enough. Start with the peak, folding the paper diagonally to create a triangle and placing it on the surface in front of you so that the folded edge is closest to you. Fold the left corner up so that it touches the opposite edge and the top side of the triangle created by the fold is parallel with the bottom edge of the paper, and fold the right corner so that it meets the point on the opposite edge created by the fold you just completed. Fold down the top peak of your paper toward you, and then fold the other peak down on the other side. This creates the classic up and down peak of the cowboy hat.
The Brim
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To make the brim for your paper cowboy hat, use your fingers to go inside the cup you have created and separate the layers and flatten and indent the bottom of the cup, which will be the top of your cowboy hat. The more precise you are when doing this step, the more clearly your hat will resemble an actual cowboy hat. Fold the front and back points up and into the cup. To finish, pull out the other points to create the brim of your hat. You can then decorate the hat if you choose to do so. Stetsons, one of the most famous types of cowboy hats, were usually made with beaver or rabbit fur and the colors of cowboy hats normally reflect this; it is common to see hats in various shades of brown, gray, white or silver. You can color your hat in these classic colors or you can get creative and make patterns or shapes on your hat.
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