A few days before Halloween, my son informed me that he needed a wizard hat to round out his Ron Weasley costume. Some tinkering with paper and I came up with the following design.

The interfacing material forms the structure of the hat while the fabric is the decoration.

Once you understand the basics of it, a single hat can be done in about 10 minutes.

These are great for costumes, parties or just playing dress up. You could knock out a bunch of these for a party in no time.

Materials

Interfacing material (non-fusable); fairly heavy weight for rigidity
Material for the outside of your hat 1/4-1/2 yard depending on size of your hat. For this project, I used a very light kind of velvety textured material.
Thread (all purpose) matching the color of your fabric.

Equipment

Scissors/ cutting wheel and cutting mat
Sewing machine
Tape measure
Pencil
String

Step 1: Size Your Hat and Measure Your Noggin

Measure

Start by measuring the circumference of your head (around your head) above the eye brows and ears. Take 1/2 of this measurement and add an inch and this will be the width of your hat.

Decide how tall you want your hat, remembering that you need to get through doors and be able to stand upright in rooms. The one pictured is 16 inches high.

Lay out your interfacing in two layers. Measure the width of the hat based on the dimension of your head- straight line B-D in the image+ 1inch (remember, the width will be 1/2 of the distance around your head +1" ). Mark your center point.(point C)

Straight up from this center point, measure the height you identified for your hat and make a mark. (C-A on the image)

Take the string, and place a pin in one end and your pencil through the string (if possible) the distance from the top of your hat to the mid point of your width (A-C).The pin will be a pivot point for your string

Holding the pin in the top mark (A), use the pencil to draw an arc from side to side (B-D), ensuring you've gone far enough to reach the sides of your hat.

With that arc drawn, draw a line from the top point to each side to intersect with your arc (A-B and A-D).

Step 2: We Be Stitching

Now that you have your lines drawn, stitch each side of your hat (A-B and A-D)- back stitch where the sides meet the arc for strength.

DO NOT STITCH THE ARC (this is where your head goes)

Cut it out!

Cut out your hat by cutting at least 1/4 inch away from each seam. On the arc, you can cut along that line.

Turn the hat right side out. Use a pencil to push the point all the way out being careful not to tear your stitches at the top (but if you do, no big deal, you won't see them).

Pop it on your head and see how it fits!

It will fit a little tighter once you add fabric because it will be turned inside the hat, so if you're using a thick material like fleece, you may want to wrap a strip around the inside and try it on for size.

Make any adjustments needed.

Step 3: Fabric and the Finish

Turn the hat right side in again (assuming it fits).

Take your chosen material and fold it so it's double layered with the good side in.

Place the flattened hat on your fabric ensuring you have a few inches below the arc. Pin in place making sure that the pins don't extend beyond the edge of your interfacing (you'll see why in the next step).

Using the hat as a guide, let your sewing machine foot run along side it and stitch each side of your hat, extending at least 1 1/2 inches below each corner at the bottom edge. (Again, don't stitch the arc.)

Remove pins and trim the excess fabric staying at least 1/4inch away from the seam. On the bottom edge along the arc, leave at least 1 1/2 - 2 inches below the arc.

Turn both the hat and fabric right side out and slide your fabric sleeve over the interfacing hat. It should extend below the bottom rim of that interfacing hat.

Fold and stitch

Fold the extra fabric inside the hat and pin in place. Optionally, fold the fabric twice inside to make a hem to prevent fraying and pin in place, no one will see it for the most part.

Be careful to not pull the fabric too tight from the top to the bottom, you want it to be snug, but not tight.

Stitch this in place.

Ready to Wear

Your hat is complete. You can wear as is or decorate with paints, stick-ons or other embellishments.

Step 4: Extras and Notes

I had fun with these hats and decided to try some other variations.

Fur

I used some scrap faux fur left over from some Halloween costumes and used that as the fabric sleeve. This particular fur, the curly one was fairly easy to work with. If you did use one which was straight, when laying it out, I you'd want to make sure the fur nap was all running in the same direction and oriented the way you wanted it (up or down).

Most furs stitch fine on the machine when the fur sides are turned in (right sides facing). Once you stitch using the machine, you can use a pin to pull any caught hair out of the seam which helps hide the seam.

When finishing, I used hot glue to secure it in place as running it through the machine with exposed fur would have been a mess.

Colored Fur

I love the look of the colored fur, it's kind of Nome like or even Trolls. As the fur wasn't especially long, I was able to stitch this one on the machine. (I salvaged this piece of fabric from the inside of an old swimming deck coat as I couldn't find any by the yard in shops in my area).

Super Tall

I made a super tall hat, just for fun. Not good for doorways or low hanging lights, but good fun none the less. It's nearly 24 inches tall.

Embellishment

I didn't do it here, but you could embellish your hat with stars, sequins or even a tassle at the peak.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable. I'd love to see your hats.