Tutorial: Make a Top Hat!

2011-01-24T20:09:00.000-08:00

Ever wanted to make your own top hat? It's not as difficult as you might think.

This hat is a jaunty half-sized top hat, but this method works for any size and many different shapes of hats. You can use these hats for cosplay, theatre, historical reenactment, Steampunk, Lolita, or any number of other fun contexts!

You Will Need:
- Ultra-Firm Fusible Stabilizer (about 1 yard)
- Fabric for main hat, lining, and edging (about 1.5 yards total)
- Hot glue gun and plenty of glue sticks
- Pencil
- Fabric Scissors
- Ruler
- Pins
- Needle and thread
- Iron
- Decorations of your choice
All of these items are available at Joann Fabrics and Crafts Store and other sewing and crafting stores.

Phase 1: Making the Crown

The crown of the hat is similar in shape to a cylinder, but tapers slightly outward. In this way, it is not enough to cut a straight rectangle out of your Ultra-Firm Fusible Stabilizer; you must cut a strip with a gentle, even arc shape, like a section of a large imaginary circle. The width of this strip should be the height that you wish your hat to be, and the length should be long enough to fit around your head (or however large or small you wish to make it). The sides of this shape should slant outward slightly.

When you bring the two ends of the curved strip together, overlapping them slightly to pin them in place, it should look something like this: Note how the curve of the flat shape contributes to the way the crown widens from the bottom to the top.

Unpin the crown and lay it flat once more. Your Ultra-Firm Fusible Stabilizer has a rough side that is covered in tiny beads of hardened glue. When ironed against fabric, these beads of glue will melt and fuse evenly to your lining. Place your flat crown shape fusible-side up and lay your lining fabric right side up on top of it. Iron over it on a medium temperature setting.
Allow your work to cool before handling it; this will ensure that the glue completely fuses to your fabric.

Next, cut the excess fabric away from your stabilizer shape.
Now you can pin your flat shape back into a cylinder and sew it in place, either by hand or by machine.
Now place your hat wide-side down on another piece of Ultra-Firm Fusible Stabilizer. Trace the the top of your hat with a pencil.
You should have a slight oval shape. Cut this out and fuse it to your lining like you did with the crown of your hat, but instead of trimming the fabric right against the edge of the stabilizer, leave a few inches of fabric around the sides.

This will be trimmed off later, but it is helpful for the next couple of steps, as having a little extra material makes it easier to glue the two pieces together. Turn this piece right side up and fit the crown of your hat over it.
Fire up your hot glue gun and glue the top of the crown to the flat top of the hat on the inside where the two pieces meet.
Flip your hat over. You may now trim off the excess fabric from the flat top piece.

Phase 2: Making the Brim

Place your hat down upon another piece of Ultra-Firm Fusible Stabilizer and trace the bottom with your pencil. You should end up with another oval shape, but smaller this time.
Now measure from your traced line the width you would like your hat to be, and mark that width all the way around.
Connect the marks to create an oval O shape.
Cut this shape out of your stabilizer.
Next, cover one side of your brim with your main hat fabric. I chose a rich, black velvet. Baste either by machine or by hand 1/4 inch from the outer edge and 1/4 inch from the inner edge.
Repeat the process by covering the other side of your brim with fabric. You may also choose to cover the bottom side of the brim with a contrasting fabric.
Now the top and bottom of your hat brim are covered, but the edges are still exposed. To cover them, we will employ a bias-binding technique loved by milliners, garment sewers, and quilters alike. A strip of fabric cut on the bias, or the diagonal, of the fabric has just enough stretch to curve around the outside of your brim without tucking or folding. Pin a 2-inch bias strip right-side down along the outer edge of your brim.
As shown in the above photograph, I have folded back one end of the strips. Proceed to overlap the other end of the bias strip over the first. Sew 3/8 inch away from the edge of the brim.
After you've sewn the strip down, fold the strip over the edge of the brim and pin down on the other side, folding the raw edge of the bias strip underneath so that it does not show. Machine or hand-stitch along the folded edge of the bias strip. Your finished brim edging will look like this:
Before you continue on with the crown of your hat, cut tabs along the inside edge of your brim. This is achieved by making a series 1/2-inch cuts spaced 1/2 to 3/4 inch away from one another all around the inside edge. These tabs will make your brim easier to fit around the bottom of the crown of your hat.

Phase 3: Covering the Crown

Now it is time to cover the crown of the hat. Because fabric is flat and your hat is not, this is trickier than covering the flat brim. Cut a piece of your main fabric wide enough to cover the entirety of the crown of your hat. Place pins to secure the fabric at the front, side, and back points around the crown. You will have a lot of excess fabric hanging off of your hat, but by carefully tucking and pinning, you can drape the fabric stylishly around the crown of your hat:
This is essentially a similar method to wrapping a gift, though with fabric and pins instead of paper and tape. When your fabric is wrapped around your hat and pinned in place, hand-stitch 1/4 inch from the edge around the bottom of your hat to secure the fabric in place. Remove the pins and trim any excess fabric from the bottom edge of the hat.

Phase 4: Finishing the Hat

Now it's time to attach the brim to the crown! Snuggle the bottom of the crown into the interior oval of the brim, manipulating the tabs you cut to shape the brim. Since the brim of top hats typically dip in the front and back and curve upward at the sides, use the tabs to your advantage. I flipped the tabs of the front and back of the brim upward toward the top of the hat, pushing the brim downward at those points, while all the tabs along the sides point downward to push the sides of the brim slightly upward.
You're almost done! Cover the raw edge on the bottom of the hat where the brim meets the crown with an extra strip of fabric, either by hand-stitching or hot glue.
Finally, decorate your hat! Embellish with ribbons, flowers, rhinestones, feathers, buttons, buckles, or anything else you can imagine.
You're finished!

Cosplaythoughts

Tutorial: Make a Top Hat!