DIY Felt Hat Band

Are you into repurposed fashion? I am in love with this growing trend in the fashion industry, and if you are too, this hat band makeover might be something you’ll want to add to your slow fashion DIY to-do list.

Hi, this is Lorrie Everitt from @makeandmerryco and I am so happy to share this DIY felt project with you. I simply removed the original hat band from one of my felt hats and replaced it with a felt hat band adorned with felt flowers, leaves, mini balls and hearts.

Let’s gather our supplies and tools:

• Felt hat
• 100% wool felt (or wool blend*) in the following colors (or colors of your choice)
• Natural
• Cream
• Petal
• Olive*
• Dark Green*
• Moss
• Mini wool felt balls
• Cream
• Gold
• Mini Wool Felt Hearts
• Dusty Pink
• Fabric scissors and snips
• Fine tip hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Measuring tape and ruler

Optional:

• DMC Pearl Cotton embroidery floss (#746) to add some embroidery details to the hat band
• 7mm scallop edge scissors to add a decorative edge to the hat band

*Note: I used 100% wool felt to create my felt flowers and leaves. This project will also work with wool blend or acrylic craft felt.

You will also need to download the free template for the felt flower and leaf patterns.

Let’s get started:

Print out the pattern template on standard 8.5 x 11-inch paper, size as is. Cut out the four pattern pieces so you can use them to cut the felt shapes by hand.

Let’s make a simple five petal flower:

1. You will need the 5 Petal Flower pattern, petal (pink) felt and one mini cream wool felt ball for each flower. Cut the felt shape.
2. Add a dab of hot glue to the centre of the flower shape, and
3. Attach the mini wool felt ball. Hold in place until dry.
   
   
   
   
4. Using your snips, cut the space between the petals so each felt petal is elongated and the petals separate just below the felt ball.
5. Add two small dabs of glue to one of the petals as shown, pinch the petal to crease and tuck it into the bottom of the felt ball. Hold until the glue is dry.
6. Repeat step 5 to shape all of the petals to finish.

Let’s make a cute loopy flower:

1. You will need the Loopy Flower pattern and cream felt. Cut the felt shape.
2. Fold the felt rectangle in half and glue together the two longer edges to form a tube.
3. Hold edges together until the glue is dry.
   
   
   
   
4. Using snips, cut tiny slits along the folded edge about ¼-inch from the glued edge to create a fringe.
   *Note: Do not cut the glued edge.
5. Add a small bead of glue to the uncut edge of the felt and begin to roll the strip of fringed felt to form the centre of the flower.
6. Continue to add glue along the edge of the strip and roll to complete the Loopy Flower.

Let’s make some leaves:

1. Use the two leave patterns and three colours of green felt to cut an assortment of basic leaf shapes.
2. Add a small amount of glue to the flat bottom of the Leaf Two, and
3. pinch as shown to give it shape.
   
   
   
   
4. Add a longer length of glue to the centre of the Leaf One, and
5. pinch as shown to bend and give the leaf a slight curved shape.
6. I recommend that you start by making three leaves for every flower that you create.

Let’s make the felt hat band and add all of the felt elements:

1. Measure your hat, just above the brim, to determine the length of felt you will need to make the hat band, and add ½-inch to the length so you can overlap the two ends. My hat band is ¾-inches wide and I used 7mm scalloped scissors to add a decorative detail to one edge.
   *Note: You can adjust the width of the band to whatever works for your hat.
2. Optional: I sewed the two ends of the felt together to form a removable hat band. I wanted to give the felt a little texture, so I embroidered the bottom edge of the hat band using DMC Pearl Cotton embroidery floss in a colour to match the natural felt. Don’t want to sew the hat band? Simply glue the two ends of the felt together.

1. And now for the fun part, play around with the arrangement of the flowers, leaves, mini balls and hearts until you are pleased with how everything is going to come together on your hat. Once you are happy with the positioning, the final step is to glue all of the elements to the hat band. Be careful, you do not want to get any glue on the hat.

Design Details:

• There’s no right or wrong as to how many flowers, leaves, mini balls and hearts to add to your hat band.
• For reference: Mine contains six felt flowers, twenty-five leaves, three gold mini felt balls and three dusty pink felt hearts.
• You can cover a quarter, half or all of the hat band with the felt elements.
• Leaves are ideal for filling in spaces between the flowers, mini balls and hearts. I created three leaves for every flower to start off with and made more as needed.
• The reason I didn’t glue the hat band or any of the felt elements to the hat was so I could easily slide the band around to position it where I wanted the floral elements to be.
• The hat band can also be removed and replaced with a different one. Imagine creating different hat bands for the seasons, holidays or to match your wardrobe.
• I plan to wear this hat on cool sunny days in February and March. And I’m already thinking about creating more hat bands with pastel-coloured flowers for Easter, and earth tone leaves for autumn, and another one with holly and berries for Christmas.

And that is it! I hope that this post inspires you to make one of these felt hat bands for yourself. If you do, I would love to see your finished project. Please tag @the_felt_store and myself at @makeandmerryco so we can see what you are creating.