Mad hatter hats. They are so whimsical, so charming and absolutely fabulous. I love them as hair accessories or as table decor for a tea party theme.
I first started making mad hatter hats several years ago. I wanted to throw a tea party as part of our Craft Market classes and wanted a fun paper activity for the kiddos to do.
For the first few hats we made in class, I found a template online that we used (see photo below). It was great but my issue with that design was that they really did not convey the whole idea of Mad Hatter, meaning I wanted some aspects of asymmetry, crazy, wacky.
So I decided to design my own.
I experimented with several designs over several years. My Easter egg hat above was a design from 3 years ago.
It has taken me several years to come to a design I really like, which is what you see above as well as part of the kits.
Supplies: crown top, crown, top brim, bottom brim all in cardstock and all come in the kit; additional supplies but not included: tacky glue, straight ruler (optional), curved ruler (optional), paint brush, paper flowers, hot glue, ribbon
These are the four main pieces of the hat.
The first step is to create score lines on the crown. To get that nice clean edge, this is the method I prefer to use (The easier option is just to fold the triangles in at their very base. Check out the step below on how to score the bottom of the crown). Take the crown and place it right side down with the top of crown pointing towards you . Using a short straight ruler, place it as shown in the photo above at about 1 centimeter or little less, in from the tip of the negative space triangles.
Press down on the ruler and bring up the bottom of the crown to create a score line.
Repeat on the other side.
To create the score line on the curved center top of crown, I use a curved ruler. Place it as shown in the photo above. This time however you will be folding the triangles up, again just below the tip of the negative space triangle.
Once the score lines are created lift up the crown and press gently on the score lines to create a semi-sharp edge.
This is what the top edge should look like.
It is a little easier to create the score lines for the bottom of the crown. First off, you will be folding the triangles to the right side of the crown. Then just fold each triangle at its base flat against the right side.
This is what it should look like when finished.
Using tacky glue, apply it to the first two triangles.
Then take the crown top and place it over the triangles with glue making sure that both the crown score line and crown top edge meet up exactly. Hold in place until just set.
Apply more tacky glue to the next two triangles on the crown.
Continue to adhere the crown top to the crown.
Remember to hold both pieces down until just set before adhering the next section.
Once you have the last two triangles to adhere, carefully apply glue to them as well as …
… the inner flap on the side seam for the crown. Tuck the two triangles in and carefully hold down keeping the glued inner seam stays open.
Then line up the side seam to adhere by lining up the first and last triangles on the bottom of the crown so that they just meet. Press the two sides together and hold down until set.
Crown all done.
Next step is to straighten the bottom triangles as in the photo above.
Take the top brim and apply tacky glue to the wrong side around the inner circle. About a 1/4 inch wide.
Insert the crown through the top brim hole. Of note, you could apply glue to the right side of the triangles. I tend to avoid doing that because it can make it messier, with the glue seeping to the outside of the hat.
Next press the triangles down onto the glue. Make sure to press the top brim so that the inner edge lies flat against the bottom of the triangle.
All done.
This is what it should like from the outside. Set aside.
Apply glue to the wrong side of the bottom brim making sure you get it to the edges of the brim. Optionally, you can apply glue to the top brim instead of the bottom brim.
Attach the two brims together making sure the edges are lined up and that there are no air bubbles on both sides.
All done with putting the hat together. Now comes the fun part: adding the decorative elements. Use hot glue to attach them.
I decided to use a paper flower and leaves as my accent.
