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Fleece Character Hat [Elmo]

I’ve started work on the annual costume designs commissioned by my boys. This year, Noah’s decided he’d like to be Super Elmo. Coincidentally, he’ll need a new hat come winter.

This is me killing two birds with one stone. So to speak.

Elmo Hat

What you’ll need [for the Elmo hat]

  • Red Fleece for hat (about 1/2 yard)
  • Orange, white, black fleece for accents (purchase the smallest quantity off the bolt you can)
  • Bag of batting/stuffing
  • Paper for tracing
  • Red thread, clear thread

Create your own hat pattern

To create the pattern for Noah’s hat, I used the shape of a hat we already owned and traced it to paper. Even without your own template, there are two main pieces you can create to pattern a hat to your child’s head.

Hat 1Below are the two pattern pieces I created. Solid purple lines correspond to the desired size of the finished hat. The edge of the paper includes a 1/2 seam.

Hat 2

Additional Pattern Notes

  • When creating your pattern, remember that the length of the concave portion of pattern 2 should equal half of the length of the convex portion of pattern 1.
  • I added 2 inches to the nape of the neck to make it longer than the hat we owned.
  • I rounded the edge that will become the flap below the child’s chin.

Hat 3

  • Pattern 1 should be cut 2X out of red fleece.
  • Pattern 2 should be cut 4X out of red fleece.

Sewing the hat

  • Sew 2 pieces of pattern 2 together from the crown of the head to the nape of the neck. Do this for the second set of pattern 2 as well.
  • Pin the concave portion of pattern 1 to the convex portion of the sewn-together portion of pattern 2 like so . . . (and machine stitch it). Do this with the second set as well.

Hat 4

  • You should have two unfinished hats at this point. Pin them together (pattern 1 to pattern 1, pattern 2 to pattern 2, along the bottom of the hat) and machine stitch them together (leaving BOTH chin-flaps un-stitched so the hat can be turned right side out).

Hat 5

  • Turn hat inside out.
  • Cut 6 lengths of red fleece (1-1/2″ X 20-2/3″). Sew three of them together (one on top of the other) and braid. Knot at the end. Do this twice.

Hat 6

  • Turn the chin flaps in (to finish the edge) and pin the braid inside. Hand stitch along the chin flaps to finish the hat.

Hat 7

Additional Sewing Notes

  • Always seam fabric with the “good side” facing in, “bad side” facing out.

Creating the “character”

Elmo’s a pretty easy character to create after the red fleece hat is completed. The size of the eyes and nose will largely depend on the size of your finished hat (my first attempt ended in HUGE eyes). I ended up using a regular kitchen drinking glass for the size of the eyes (four circles cut in white fleece), a spool of thread for the pupil (two circles cut in black fleece), and the same drinking glass to create an oval shape for the nose (two ovals cut in orange).

Hat 8

  • Machine stitch pieces together (white eye to white eye, orange nose to orange nose) and stuff. Hand stitch closed.
  • Hand stitch eyes together, then nose to eyes and then the entire face piece to the red hat.
  • Hand stitch pupils on where appropriate.

Additional Sewing Notes

  • Always seam fabric with the “good side” facing in, “bad side” facing out.

Hat 9There’s my little lovely super excited about his new hat. How can you not smile at this?!?