To form a tapered or conical crown for a range of dollhouse hats, you will shrink a piece of dampened felt with an iron, over a tapered hat form. The easiest form to use is a small cork in the appropriate size for your doll. The length of the form isn't important as long as the form is long enough for the height of the crown you need. I needed a one inch length of the cork to shape my Puritan's hat in 1:12 scale. A wine cork might work for playscale dolls in 1:6 scale.
Cut Out A Circle of Felt - To begin, cut out a circle of felt, large enough to make the hat you want. If you are uncertain, cut the felt circle larger than you expect to need, you can always trim it back. For the 1:12 scale Puritan or Pilgrim's hat with a brim, I used a circle of felt roughly 2 1/8 inches in diameter. If I was making a Fez or Shako, I could use a smaller circle. You will need a piece which will cover 2x the height of your hat, plus 2 x the width of the brim, plus the distance across the top of the hat.
Wet the Felt - To get your felt to shrink to shape you will need to wet it thoroughly and iron it with a hot iron.
Attach The Felt to the Hat Form - Center the felt circle over your hat form (cork) using the narrow end of the cork as the top of the hat if you are making a 'traditional' Puritan or Pilgrim's hat or Leprechaun's hat. Some Shakos and some Leprechaun's hats are wider at the top than where they join the brim or peak. If you want to make this shape of crown, center your felt over the thickest end of your cork or hat form. With the circle of felt centered over the end of the cork, stretch the felt down the sides of the cork and anchor it with a dressmakers pin. It should be anchored to the hat form (cork) at the point where you want the brim and the crown to meet. I set mine at the very base of my one inch cork to give me roughly and eight inch scale crown when the hat was finished. Stretch the felt over the opposite side from the position of your first pin, and anchor the felt on that side. Now anchor the felt midway between the two pins on each side. The object here is to spread the circle evenly around the cork, so that as you shrink the felt, the hat will have even fullness around the base of the crown.
Start To Shrink The Felt - Using a hot iron (and wearing an oven mitt to protect your free hand!) begin to press the felt to the cork down the sides of the cork towards the pins. Do not move your iron back and forth, just press it firmly into the cork. As the felt begins to shrink you will notice it beginning to form peaks and valleys of extra felt at the base of the cork. When these peaks and valleys are evenly found around the cork, stop pressing and proceed to the next step.
