Ever since I was little, I’ve enjoyed dressing things up…my baby brother, my dogs, and now, my husband. :) Today I’m going to share an easy, 10-step project for a dog party hat. I made the first two hats probably 2 years ago. I put them on the dogs as part of a birthday surprise for my husband (then boyfriend). Since then, we’ve broken them out for all sorts of celebrations…
The hats are dog friendly (i.e., shred-proof, soft, and flexible) as well as super easy (and cheap) to make.
Supplies (for 1 dog hat):
- 1 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of felt (you can buy packs of these at craft stores, WalMart, Target, etc.)
- a hot glue gun and hot glue sticks
- a pair of scissors
- 2 strips of ribbon (each strip should be at least 12″ long, but it depends on the size of your dog)
- additional scraps of felt (optional)
- additional ribbon (optional)
Instructions:
1. Start out with 1 sheet of felt.
2. Fold the top right corner down and to the left until the corner meets the bottom.
3. Apply hot glue on the singly-ply part of the sheet.
4. Now, fold over the single-ply strip to seal that side of the sheet. Fold over the small remaining corner (seen in the left photo above). Then trim the open end of the sheet so you’re left with a cone shape.
Tip: If you have a small dog, just cut the cone shorter for a smaller hat. This hat should fit a medium to large dog, anywhere from 50 to 100 lbs.
5. After trimming, you should have your basic hat. If you’re pressed for time, you can simply make a bunch of these in different colors. If not, you can add details and decoration with scraps of ribbon and felt…
6. Here, I added a scrap of pink felt to the top of the hat. Be sure to play around with the placement of the felt before applying your glue.
7. After finishing the pink top, I cut out strips of white felt to add a fringe trim along the bottom.
8. Since you’re dealing with a cone shape, it’s easiest to do the bottom trim in two pieces. Here, I cut out the fringe with a bunch of short vertical cuts. Then I glued the trim to the hat.
9. I’ve been waiting a looong time to use this felt ribbon I bought on sale at Michaels…
10. Last step: glue your strips of ribbon to the inside of the hat. Don’t forget to measure your dog’s head first – make sure your strips of ribbon are long enough.
Here are a couple other polka-dot hats from previous years…
In my experience, dogs keep them on for about 30 seconds while you tell them to stay.
After they get their treat, they usually tilt their heads to make it slide off…
but it’s worth it for the photo opps!
No comments yet.