I just finished this in my Costume Crafts class.  ^___^ very awesome way to make a cool hat!

Need:

- felt
- head manikin/ head mold, wrapped in saran/plastic – this is important
- elmer’s glue
-pins, T-type work best
- paint or other decorations
- stitching is optional
- tubing or wiring may be integrated for fancier designs like a hat with a brim.

Time: I spent 6 hours over 3 days.


Step 1 – Stretch the felt

First, make sure your base felt piece is big enough to cover the area of head you want to cover.  (if not, sew two pieces together)  Soak it in a glue-water mixture (water enough to thin the glue til it’s pretty liquidy), and drape the wet felt over the head mold.  First pin the felt in 4 “corners,” stretching it taught as you go, and continue around the head to pin the felt, pulling the it tightly downward.  With enough pins, you’ll be able to flatten out evenly any bumps as shown above.  For my hat, I left those bumps at the lower bottom half of the hat because I planned to cut off that area.  Rest assured, enough pulling and a billion pins will make the felt flatten over a curved surface in any area. =)  Note:  do NOT push your pins all the way in because they will be glued in forever.

I also soaked another piece and draped it over another head, using styrofoam balls and pipe cleaners to prop up this leaf to make it retain its sticking-out parts as it dried.  Many pins were again used, but this time to hold the leaf creases rather than to stretch the felt.

Step 2 – Remove the pins and dry

Removing the pins before 24 hours is very important, because if they get stuck in the head… you aren’t getting them out. =/

Step 3 – Assemble and decorate

Cutting your base shape out of the main cast is the first step, and I removed all the wrinkly parts from mine.  I then glued and pinned all my pieces together, again allowing them to dry and leaving the pins pretty far out so they could be pulled out easily when dry.

Sometimes a little modding to fit your head size is needed:

Can always be extra constructive with scraps, too ;)

Added some paint….

It will probably need a hat pin to stay on your head, like many small hats do. :)

Some other neat creations with felt!