You can make this stylish, mini top hat with craft supplies that can be found around your home. It is easy to assemble and can be personalized to your liking. You can add as many different embellishments and designs to your hat.

This would make a perfect hat for "Silly Hat Day" at school. You can also use it to show off to your friends and family or for other special occasions. I hope you enjoy making this hat!

Supplies

black cardstock
2 circle templates: a larger template and a smaller one to trace the top and bottom of the hat
ribbon, embellishments, sewing needle, and thread (optional)
scissors
tape
pencil or marker
hot glue gun with hot glue sticks
ruler

Step 1: Trace and Cut Out

Using your large circular template, trace a circle on the piece of black cardstock paper. Cut this circle out. Next, repeat this process with the smaller circle template by tracing around it on the paper and cutting it out. These two pieces will be the top and bottom parts of the hat.

Step 2: Cutting Out the Cylinder

Next, you are going to make the cylinder part of the hat. To do this, measure four inches on both ends of your paper with your ruler and mark it. Make sure that these two lines are straight by measuring four inches all the way along the strip of paper.

Once your lines are straight, we are going to find the circumference of the smaller circle that we cut out in the previous step. Take the smaller circle and draw a mark on the edge. It does not matter where the mark is, as long as it is on the edge of the circle.

Then, line the marked edge of the circle up to the edge of the paper on one of the four inch marks. Roll your cut-out circle along the paper until you rotate all the way back to the marked edge one time. Mark where the circle finished rotating around.

Repeat the steps above on the other edge of the cylinder.

Step 3: Putting the Cylinder Together

To put the cylinder together, use your ruler to draw lines from one point to another. Cut out the strip of paper. This should be shaped like a rectangle.

Now, using tape, place a piece (or as many as you need) on the side of the strip that you want showing. I chose to make the side where the lines were visible on the inside of my cylinder, so they cannot be seen.

To finish the cylinder, tape the ends together. This is the middle piece of your hat.

Step 4: Glue the Hat Together

Now, get your small circle, cylinder, and hot glue gun. Carefully glue the small circle onto the top of the cylinder. This will be the top of the hat.

To make the bottom of the hat, do the same by placing hot glue in a circle on the large circle cut-out and placing the cylinder on top of it. Be careful not to burn yourself by touching the glue while it is hot or if it has not hardened all of the way.

If you like the hat as it is, you can leave it at this step and add a ribbon so the hat can be tied around your head. Otherwise, you can continue on to the next steps to decorate your hat.

Step 5: Add a Ribbon and Embellish (Part 1: Optional)

Using a long strand of ribbon, wrap it around your hat to measure the exact length you need. Then, once you have found the correct length, cut the ribbon. Make sure that there is extra ribbon, rather than having too short of a piece.

Apply a little bit of glue to the back of the hat (where the tape seam is). Use a pencil or marker to press the ribbon down onto the glue, so you do not burn yourself by touching it. Then, making sure the ribbon is wrapped tightly around the hat, put another bit of glue on the hat and press the other end of the ribbon down with a pencil or marker.

Now, for embellishments. To embellish your hat, you can add anything that you want! This is where you can go full-out and get creative to personalize your hat. For mine, I used fake flowers to decorate the hat and cover up the dried glue.

I started with one layer of flowers and slowly added more on until I got something I liked.

Step 6: Add a Bow (Part 2: Optional)

To finish the embellishments on my hat, I added a bow. I made my bow by hand sewing ribbon together and gluing it to my hat. Although, you can choose to use a bow that is already made and glue it to the back (or front) of your hat instead.

If you do want to go for the first option to hand-sew your ribbon, you will need several more feet of ribbon, some thread, and a needle.

First, thread the needle. If you are having trouble threading the needle, you can lick the thread once or twice to make the frayed ends stick together better. Make sure your strand of thread is about a foot long. You can cut over a foot of thread, but, keep in mind that if the thread is too long, it may become tangled and knot. If it is too short, you will not be able to sew very much with the strand.

After threading the needle, bring both ends of the thread together and make a knot. This will make one large circle of thread. Now, start layering pieces of the ribbon on top of one another, sewing the strands together. I started by sewing one side of the bow together first, then, I moved on to sewing the other side.

Lastly, after finishing both sides of the bow, I left about an extra foot of the ribbon on. Because there was only one long strand of ribbon, I added a second one. I cut a piece of ribbon that was the same length as the first strand and sewed it to the bow.

After all of the sewing is finished, you can apply hot glue on the back of the bow and stick it to the back of your hat. I chose to glue the bow on the back of the hat because it partially covered the tape seam.

Step 7: Add Final Ribbon

This final step will allow you to wear your stylish, mini top hat. I used another piece of thin ribbon for my hat, but you can use elastic, string, etc. for your hat. The purpose of this ribbon is so you can tie the hat around your head in order to show it off to all of your family and friends.

Take a piece of ribbon, elastic, string, or something else and cut it several feet long. Find the middle of the strand and glue that to the center of the hat. Then, glue the rest of the strand to the bottom of the hat.

After the glue is dried, put the hat on and adjust the length of the strands, making sure there is enough for you to tie it with.

Lastly, put your hat on and admire it. You're finished!