Capuchon Tutorial (or Princess Hat)

It's my turn! lol

If you read my post earlier (or you are from Louisiana)  you know that a capuchon is pronounced cap-e-shon and it's a tall conical hat worn by the mardi gras' for the "Courir de Mardi Gras" and a friend of my sister asked me to make one for him, and while I am sure most of you won't ever need one 1) I couldn't find any tutorials online...or even and indication of the dimensions anywhere online and 2) You could use the same method with smaller dimensions to make one of those princess hats with the streamers...which is what I plan to do for Sophie...I'll post pics once it's made.  I am including instructions on the sewn and no sew version...sorry no pics for the no sew way but I'm pretty sure you can figure it out...if not let me know and I can post some pics..

What you'll need:

about 3/4 yd of main fabric

about 1/2 yd contrast fabric

~and/or~

other embellishments (bells, pom poms, fringe, etc)

glue gun & glue sticks

poster board

packaging tape

*If you are making one for a child or want to use this tutorial to make a princess hat, cut the poster board in half first (11"x 14")  I haven't tested these dimensions yet but it seems like they would work...I'll update once I make Sophie's *

Start at one corner of the poster board and roll it toward the one catacorner to it to form a cone.  Adjust it to fit the wearers head and tape it in place.

I suggest taping all seams inside and out to make sure it is sturdy.

Trim the bottom edge so that it is even.

Cover the cone with your fabric (right side of fabric facing the cone) making sure there is at least 5" of overhang or more at the bottom.

~OR~

if you don't sew or don't want to, you can always just hot glue it down.  I suggest using a low temp gun if you have one and be very careful not to burn yourself like I usually do!  You'll also want to fold the raw edge under before you glue.

Pin tightly along the edge of the cone.  You want your pins to form a line along the edge of the cone.

Remove the cone from the fabric and trim along pins leaving about 1/2" for the seam allowance (or what ever seam allowance you like to work with really)

Then turn your pins sideways (the way you would normally pin them or you can just remove them as you stitch if you like)

Trim the seam allowance at the point.

Press the seam to one side.

Turn it out and use something like a chopstick to push the point all the way out and then, slip it over the cone.

Then, I put it on and snipped the fabric right in front of my ears.  I would advise you use a fabric marker though so you don't cut your hair or ear....didn't really think about that when I was doing it..lol!

Cut up to about 1/2" below where the poster board ends across the front of the hat to the other mark.  It should look something like this.

Just another pic to give you the idea.

You could leave the back as is with the point, but I trimmed mine on a curve so that it would be cut across the bias and I wouldn't have to worry about fraying.

Hot glue the 1/2" overhang you left in the front to the inside of the hat.

side view

Now you are done and just need to embellish...

I made fringe by cutting fabric 2.5" x the width of the fabric and snipping it with pinking shears about every 1/2" and stopping about 1/2" from the edge of the fabric.  It took me two of these strips...so about 1/8 of a yard.  Then, I just hot glued it around the bottom and up around the top like a candy cane.  Then, I sewed my fabric pom pom to the top and hot glued a few bells but they little things inside the bells got stuck in the hot glue and they dont jingle any more so I would suggest sewing them on.

You can find the tutorial for the fabric pom pom here.

And here's the end result.

lol!  I think it's bigger than he is!

This is the first one I made from a patten for a witch's hat.  From the pattern pics it seemed like it would be big enough but it was waaaay to short...a capechon needs to be at least 20" or more (that's what my dad says anyway, and he was born on Mardi Gras so I figure he would know!) and it was really flimsy too!

But it's perfect for Ian.  Doesn't he make such a cute little model?!?  You guys don't get to see much of him since I mostly make girl stuff.

As always feel free to email me any questions and if you make one be sure to link up to Sew Crafty Saturday (it's open Sat-Mon) or post to my flickr!