Party Hats Of Death

For the uninitiated this line is from the movie "The Wild". Much maligned because it is a bit of a steal of Madagascar, but the soundtrack is great and Nigel has the BEST one liners. Anyway it's She-Who-Worships-Pink's favorite movie of all time thanks in no small part to Nigel the Koala (who oddly has a British accent).

So when we come to making party hats, they must be "PARTY HATS OF DEATH".

Because of our craft-obsession, the Pinkster and I save everything: bits of wool, ribbon, old un-sticky stickers, pretty stuff we pull off greeting cards, pipe-cleaners, feathers, you name it. I also regularly hit the $2 shops to stock up, and all of this stuff gets stored in old take-away containers in her desk for rainy weekends.

Old food containers are a regular save too and recently, after a trip to Cirque Du Soleil where they were selling very cute kid's top hats attached to head bands (for around $45), I started to look at these 2-Minute-Noodle tubs in a different light.


So today we convert a noodle tub (or you could use a clean take-away coffee cup) into a fabulous fabric top hat. You'll just need the following:

Fabric and trims of choice, regular craft glue, a glue gun, an old hairband, Styrofoam tub or cardboard cup and some tissue paper, if you're like me and you need to cut a pattern for absolutely everything. I  wrapped the tissue paper around our tub to cut a proper pattern, this way the curve is perfect and there are no gaps. Side-plates make excellent brim patterns.

If a picture paints a thousand words, I think I'll just let these do the talking:

pushing out the clipped curves

et voila!

Rubber bands are great for holding things in place till the glue takes hold

coffee mugs are also helpful making things stay put...

when the top piece and brim dries, it's time to apply the rest of the fabric

Lastly you'll need to up-end the hat and use the glue-gun to build up a thick glob of glue around the hairband in two places on the underside of the hat just above the brim.

And  here you have our end result: with a bit of tulle, some stick on earnings, scrap-booking stuff from the $2 shop. Oh and very special thanks to Nana for posting us the gorgeous butterflies to add to our crafting collection. The butterfly just 'makes' it, don't you think?

Now if you don't have a glue gun, you can make a simpler version of this hat using card and paint instead of fabric.  To keep the hat on, just make some holes at the base just above the brim,and thread these with hat elastic.