How to Make a Felt Peter Pan or Robin Hood Hat

Need to make a quick and easy (but completely enchanting) felt Peter Pan/Robin Hood hat?  This tutorial will step you through the simple process.  This Peter Pan (or Robin Hood) felt hat tutorial uses some sewing, but it would be easy to adapt to make a no-sew peter pan hat, too, just using a hot glue gun.

I made these dashing caps for One Stone Event's clever Feathers and Arrows fairy tale mash-up party.  

(Awesome party photos courtesy of Emma Grace Photography)

Just put the hat on and let the imaginative magic begin!

Perfect for a Halloween costume, or just creative play.  

Felt Peter Pan or Robin Hood Hat Tutorial

To figure out how to make the felt Peter Pan hats, I started with this great tutorial (she even has a printable template!) by Sew in Harmony.  Of course I had to do things a little bit differently and tweak the project to my needs.  which meant that I went through several things that didn't work before finally settling on what did.  And my project ended up being a LOT like Sew in Harmony's, because she had probably done all the figuring out already that I thought I was too clever for my own good.  ;-)

I started by sketching out a pattern, based largely on the Sew in Harmony design, though I ended up liking a slightly more rounded top.  Here's where I thought I was clever and I really wasn't.  I thought the brim part (the straight edge  bit on the right side) should bump out about a half an inch extra.  I thought that would make it look even more awesome.  It didn't.  Don't try it.

I also thought it would be a good idea to cut the triangle-shaped brim pieces separately and sew them on in a much more complicated way.  Yeah, it turns out it doesn't look any better and is just much fussier.  Don't try it.

Here's where I did something differently than Sew in Harmony that actually DID work out.  I cut two of my pattern pieces from the felt, and sewed the top edges of the hat together--BUT I didn't sew that back, flat bit of the brim yet.  

DIY Peter Pan Hat Tip:

• If you don't want to sew the hat together, just use a hot glue gun to glue the pieces together.  It works really well!

After sewing the first stage, I turned the hat right side out, and then sewed that last little bit at the back of the hat.  

After that, I just flipped up the brim of the hat (neatly hiding that last seam).  I found that a little bit of hot glue at the front tip of the hat brim helped the hat to hold its shape nicely.  After that, it's just a matter of using the hot glue gun to attach a feather, and you're done!

Not feeling crafty?  You can you can always buy them!  (buy here)

Feeling crafty?  Using a rotary cutter and self healing cutting mat makes cutting out a bunch of these a breeze!

Did you make one of these for your kid (or you?)  I want to see!  Share your creations over on the Tikkido Facebook page.