Making Caps for Kids

For a child, a hat can be all that stands between a regular day at the beach and a rip-roaring adventure on the open ocean. Nothing fuels children’s imaginations like playing dress-up, and all it takes to jumpstart their minds is a little headgear. Why bust out your knitting needles or sewing machine when you can create fun costume accessories with the kid who plans to wear them? These instructions will help you top off your afternoon playtime with a fun and easy party cap.

Level of difficulty: Moderately easy

You will need:

• A large sheet of poster board or similarly thick but bendable paper
• A pair of scissors
• Markers, crayons, or poster paint
• Glue
• A stapler or two-sided tape
• Glitter, gems, and other decorative materials

What to do:

First, you will construct the basic form of the hat. If you are doing this activity with younger children, you should go ahead and do this part for them. If the children are older, you can instruct them how to do it themselves.

• Taking the corner of your poster board/large sheet of paper, bring toward the center of the page, forming a conical shape.
• Measure the opening on the head of the child.
• There should be some extra paper forming a little triangle past the bottom of the hat’s rim. You do not have trim this part off, but if you would prefer a traditional party hat, then cut along the bottom of the cone so that its bottom is even.
• Holding the shape of the cone, fasten it in place, either with tape or glue along the edges that overlap.
• Now that you have constructed the basic cap form, you can go to town decorating it with whatever paint, markers, crayons, and adornments you have at your disposal.