How to Make a First Birthday Party Hat
For Ellena's first birthday I made her a cute party hat. Technically I made her two, one for her simple first birthday celebration and another one with a bit more pizazz for her first birthday photos. I plan on taking her pictures just as soon as Spring decides to show its face for more than a day here in Virginia.I considered purchasing a party hat for Ellena's first birthday from Etsy. I certainly saw some pretty ones, but since we weren't throwing her a party I wanted to make her something and the hat was the perfect thing.
How to make a first birthday party hat:
Gather your supplies:
- You'll need some heavy card stock 1-2 sheets.
- Glue (I prefer a glue gun for this project )
- Whatever you wish to embellish your hat with. I used ribbon and washi-tape.
- An elastic to go around baby's head. I used an old bow of the baby's.
- scissors
- ruler
- pencil
- cake plate
- perhaps a stapler or other fasteners
Trace a half circle using the plate.
Mark the center bottom of the half circle (the flat side).
From the center point, draw a 45 degree angle. Then going back to the center point, draw what looks like an upper lip. You can also omit this step by downloading a template - you can find them via a Google search. I developed this DIY with inspiration from this very helpful Youtube video, "How to Make Petite Party Hats", by Fancy Free. It's a great video and if you'd like some more visuals I highly recommend it.
Next assemble your hat topper. For the first hat I made Ellena I used a premade gift ribbon I bought at Target. For the second hat I made one by wrapping ribbon on to itself that was roughly about 1 1/2 to inches long. then I gathered the ends and stapled them together.
I covered the staples with gold glitter washi tape.Next cut out the outline of the hat.
Glue your hat topper to the part with the "lip shaped" cutout.
Next fold your hat into the cone shape and glue the edges.
Once your hat is assembled, embellish your hat to your heart's content! I wrapped the hat in washi-tape! It was not sticking to well to the glitter paper so I had to glue some of it down. Then I wrapped the bottom of the hat in gold ribbon to match the top. I used the gold-glitter washi tape to form the number one.Finally, attach your elastic. If you don't have a baby bow, you can order some here, or even use a piece of an old panty-hose.On the first hat I made I created the number one by cutting out one I hand drew onto card stock.
