How to Make a Peter Pan Hat: Tutorial

I don't know if it's because he can fly, because he is his own boss, or because he has a cool enemy with a hook for a hand, but Peter Pan is a HUGE deal at our house!

My cute little guy watches Jake and the Neverland Pirates just about everyday and since the new "movie" with Peter Pan came out he has watched that at least once a day. A couple of days ago he ~~asked~~ begged me to make him a hat like Peter Pan.... so I did!

... and now you can too! Here's how:

My little guy just turned 3 and doesn't have a huge head, so I was able to get away with using the felt pieces that you can buy precut to 9"x12". I bought 2 in "Pirate Green" {the actual color on the tag} and 1 piece in red.

Supplies:

• green felt

• red felt

• measuring tape

• 5/8" elastic

• sewing machine and thread to match

• pen or erasable marker

• pins

Start by measuring your child's head all the way around. Then add 1" and divide that number in half. That's how big the bottom line of your hat should be. Mine was exactly 12". Then draw a peter pan shaped hat. {this was hard to take a picture of so I hope you can see it ok!}

Then layer your two green felt pieces together and cut along your lines.

Then if you are like me, you will realize the shape you drew isn't as peter pan-ish as you would like and make an adjustment! ♥

Then you are going to sew along the lines shown. The great thing about working with felt is that it is a little tacky -- in a good way! They two pieces pretty much stay put.. no need for pins... unless you really want to!

I like to sew just about to the edge on both sides of my stitching. It creates a nice crisp corner! Trim your threads and you are ready for the next step!

Now grab your red felt piece and draw a feather outline. It doesn't have to be perfect.. and mine kind of looks like a leaf! {sorry it's a little fuzzy.... felt is hard to photograph up close with my point-and-shoot camera!}

Change the thread in your machine to match your felt color. I sewed a simply straight stitch right down the center of my feather. This helped to give it a little added stiffness.

Here are your finished pieces so far.

Use some of your left over green felt and cut a small rectangle to cover the stem on your feather. This is where I had to use a pin... to make sure that teeny tiny piece of green felt and the feather stayed in place. Then simply sew around the rectangle attaching both it and the feather to the hat.

{Make sure you switch to your green thread!}

I decided to stitch my feather down to the hat. Otherwise it was a little too floppy. I started at the base of the feather {top of the green rectangle} and sewed a straight stitch up about 3/4 of the way to the top of the feather.

I don't know about the "peter pan" at your house, but mine is always trying to jump off of furniture and fly around the room. So, in order to make sure that his hat stays put I added some elastic to the inside.

Place the end of the elastic on one of the seams of the hat. Stitch it in place. Then stretch the elastic slightly as you sew around the rim of the hat. Make sure you use a zig zag stitch so that the elastic is able to stretch.

Just sew the end of the elastic when you reach your starting point. No need to measure your length ahead of time. Just stretch it slightly, sew it, and cut the excess off at the end.

Once the elastic was in, I fringed the feather and it was DONE! All that's left is for your little peter pan to put it on and find the second star to the right!