To Make a Miniature Felt Cowboy Hat You will need:
- A model head to fit the hat to. If your hats will be for a display you can use chess pawns for display heads and fit the hats to those.
- Good quality wool felt in a thickness suitable to the scale. The felt will be compressed through the process of making a hat, so it can start out 1/3 thicker than you want the hat brim to be. A cowboy hat for a 1:12 scale male doll will require an approximately 3 inch (7.5cm) square of felt.
- A bottle cork with a circumference equal to the circumference of the doll head you wish to fit. Determine the circumference by wrapping a piece of thread around the doll's head just above it's ears (over a wig if it will be wearing one). To make a hat to fit the doll you will need a cork with the same circumference at the base of the crown of the hat. For the doll shown, I used a #7 cork.
- A sharp hobby knife used to cut the cork to shape for the crown and the hatband.
- Sharp scissors
- White (pva) glue
- A steam iron to press out the creases in the felt.
- A plastic twist tie as flat as possible to hold the felt on the form and make a crease for the hatband
- Plastic food wrap to cover the cork.
- A photo of the hat you want to make with information about the crown height and brim width if possible.
