UPDATE:  If you need an adult size Mario hat, use THIS post.

A few years back my kids were obsessed with Angry Birds.  I'm mean OBSESSED!  I thought they'd never be over it.  But alas, time moves on and so do kid obsessions.  It's nearly birthday time again at our house and all my son wanted for his party were Mario and Luigi hats!

Easy Mario Brothers Hats

 A few years ago I made Angry Birds Loot bags for a birthday party.  That experience taught me that you can make just about any cartoon character if you break it down into basic shapes.  Here's the link for the Angry Birds Loot Bags.

Easy Angry Birds Loot Bags

In this tutorial I'll show you how to make the easiest Mario Brothers hats around.  Since I'm a visual person I took LOTS of pictures.  Probably too many - but you'll see.  This project is wicked easy!

For this project you will need:
Makes 10 hats

1/2 yard green fleece
1/2 yard red fleece
white fleece or felt (scrap pieces work fine)
thread
Red thread
Green thread
White thread
1 dinner plate
1 bowl
marker (I used a sharpie)
Scissors
sewing machine

What to do:

Gather all of your materials.  This won't take long at all!
I chose a 10.5" dinner plate (mostly because that's what I had on hand) and a bowl that was approximately 1/2 the size of the plate.

Plate and bowl for tracing

10" plate

5.5" bowl

 Here is a picture of the final hat.

Finished hat on my 6 year old

 If you need a larger/floppier hat choose a larger plate and bowl.


Cutting

 Fold the fabric in 1/2 and trace around the plate.  Center the bowl inside the plate circle and trace around the bowl.

Trace the plate and bowl using a marker

 Cut out the larger circle.  (because the fabric was folded you'll end up with 2 large circles)

Cut out the large circle

 Next carefully cut out the smaller circle.  You will end up with 3 circles like this.

Cut the smaller circle

  Fold the smallest circle in 1/2 and cut on the fold.

Fold the smallest circle in 1/2 and cut on the fold

Hat pieces

Now for the monogram.

Use scrap fleece or felt

The circle should be small enough to fit inside the hat band

Cut the white fabric into a circle that is small enough to fit on the hat band.

Using fabric scraps, cut a small red square

Cut a red square small enough to fit inside the white circle.

Cut the small red square into the letter "M".

Fold the square in half

Cut a notch on top of the fold

Cut the bottom like this

Look, you made an "M"

Make sure it fits!

 Make sure that you're "M" fits inside the white circle.  Trim as necessary.



Sewing

Now you're ready to sew!

Using red thread, sew the "M" to the white circle.

Stitch the M in place

Set the letter aside.  It's time to sew the hat!

Sew the outer edges of the hat

Sew the outer edge of the 2 larger circles together.

Turn it inside out

Turn the hat inside out.

Sew the hat bill

Stitch the egde just like this!

Sew the rounded edges of the smaller circle together.  Turn it inside out.  At this point your project should look like this.

Almost done!

Center the initial on the hat band.  Using white thread, sew it in place.

Center the letter

Sew it in place

Time to sew the hat's bill.  Center the bill over the letter.  Stitch the hat bill in place.

Center the bill over the letter

Sew the bill in place

That's it!  You're done!

TA-DA!  All done!

Wasn't that so easy!!!!

All DONE!



Now if you're me, you do this again 9 more times to please your kid!

Mario Hat Bonaza!

I sewed and sewed just dreaming of the glimmer in my son's eye!

But wait...what's that you say son!?  Oh, you've changed your mind you say?  Now that I'm all done sewing you don't want Mario and Luigi hats!?   To quote my mother "dirty words and nasty thoughts!" Turns out the young master is worried that his friends aren't as into Mario and Luigi as he.  Turns out he's afraid he'll get teased if I bring "baby dress up clothes" to his school party.

!#@$&!!

The good news is that mommy is as crafty a business woman as she is a hat maker.  And so I posted the hats on etsy!

Another mom needed 16 hats.  So I whipped up a few more and shipped them off to Brooklyn!

Etsy saves the day!

Let's just hope that her son is sweet and grateful!

I still don't have a give-away for my son's party, but I'm thinking he might not deserve one.  I'll keep you posted!

Happy Creating!

2 Mario's

For more crafty ideas, click HERE!