Ingredients:
1. Cardboard from anywhere. Any cardboard will do as long as it's the same thickness.
2. Black Felt or Fleece.
3. Bristol Paper
4. Hot Glue Gun
5. Razor/ Scissors
6. Ruler/ Tape Measure
7. Pen and Pencil
The first step is the measure is to get the correct measurement of your head or at least close to the correct circumference. For this top hat the circumference was somewhere around 23 inches. It will differ from person to person. Once you have your measurement make a couple cardboard test pieces. Cut an oval shape out and fit it over you head to make sure it fits. Too small and it will balance on your head like a pile of books, too big and it will cover your eyes. Make sure to also add at most another inch to the circumference. The stacking of material plus your own hair, can make it too tight if you don't give yourself some room to work with. Instead of dragging the razor across the cardboard, poke it down to perforate it. This is much easier and faster. Also make sure to keep the cut out solid oval because you'll need it later.
Test it over your head and look like a fool. I know i do! Also, make a strip of card board to put inbetween your head and the test oval. This will determine how much space you need to work with.
Once you have the correct size oval you can start on the "Stove Pipe" of the hat. Take a piece of cardboard and make a line all the way across with a height of 6 inches. The divide the piece with your ruler into 1 inch wide strips. The circumference you use will match the number of strip you need. Since my hat was 23 inches I only needed 23 strips. Make sure to hold the ruler down on your edge when cutting to get all your strips straight. Crooked is bad. Unless you want your hat to be crooked.
Next, take the test board that worked well enough and make a border around the cut out about 2 1/4 inch wide. This is the rim of the hat. Perforate the rim.
This is optional. If you want a hat that tapers make sure to bend all the strips like so (also do the same with the rim by bending it in a U - shape). If you want a straight top (and rim) then don't do anything at all to them! It will save you a step. Take the solid oval piece from before and glue the strips around the very edge of it with hot glue. You should end up with something like this when you're done.
Make sure to take bristol or any other paper that's a little hard and glue it around the top rim. This will hold the hat together better and create a smooth edge when the fabric is glued on. DO NOT glue the fabric at the step. These two pictures are an example of a mess up. If you glue the fabric on at this stage it becomes very wrinkled and rigid looking (it's also a huge pain to take it off and it will most certaintly ruin a section of the hat). Unless you want that kind of look, then by all mean proceed. Also, when the step is finished, perforate around the inside as close as you can get to the
strips to make an opening.
After making a border on the rim you'll want to cut several strips of bristol (or another hard paper) and glue them down part way inside the hat and on the outside of the hat. Make sure to press well so that the paper is snug.
Now we can start to put the fabric on! This is the easy part. Take a large piece of fabric and make sure it's a little over half the length of one side and also make sure the piece is WIDE. You'll need the extra material. Start with end and glue part of the rim down on the top. The lay some glue down on the outside of the hat and take the fabric and pull it making it as flat as possible. Pull it over the other edge and glue the insides down. The inside doesnt matter too much since no one is going to see it if you're wearing the hat. Repeat this process by gluing down small sections of the fabric as you pull it across the face of the hat.
Now take your cut out rim and lay it on the fabric. Outline the inside and outside. Make sure add a little extra to the inside outline. Make two indentical pieces and the take one and lay glue on the edge of the fabric. Then take the other piece of fabric and lay it on top of that one. This makes a cheapo-quicky seam. Turn the fabric inside out and you'll have a fairly smooth edge that looks as if it was sewn togther. Take the rim and slip it in like a book cover. Pull the inside fabric to the edge of the rim to cover the cardboard and glue it down. Use the hot glue and glue around the bottom of the "Stove Pipe" and the insert the Pipe into the rim. Try to push the rim against the pipe to close any holes in the rim as the glue dries.
When that's all done you can move on to the cover over the top hat. Make an oval shape that only leaves about a 1/2 inch of rim. Do the same process with the fabric by pulling it and gluing. Take inside of the hat and gauge how far the cap goes down. Take the hot glue and make a ring on the inside of the hat where the cap will lay snug. Lay the cap it and it should glue without any glue being visible. You can also press it in a little to make sure there are no gaps as the glue dries.
And there you have it! Your very own cheapo Top hat that's a little more than mediocre. Take some masking tape and dab it against the fabric because there will definately be strands of glue and debris all over it, to clean it up a little. Get creative and do whatever you want with it now. Add bows such as the image below. Or just wear it plain as you go on a bike ride downtown. You're sure to turn some heads and get some compliments (and maybe more than a few stares and odd looks).
