This is a step by step for how I created my Dragon Trainer Lulu hat! I wanted to bring her large, cartoonish hat to life as best I could so through a lot of tears and research I was finally on my way! I started out following Vensy’s wonderful giant hat tutorial at first so for some more detail go give her page a look!

Here's some things you'll want to grab:

16 Gauge Wire (For the base supports)

14 Gauge Wire (For smaller supports)

Duct tape

2 - 3 Yards of Cotton Batting (You can get this in any fabric store)

2 yards outer fabric

1 yard Sash fabric

Bias tape (Or in my case braided trim)


Alright let's get started! First you'll want to measure your head. Depending on your preference you'll either want to keep this measurement as is or add a few inches. If you have a tape measure try creating a circle with your measurement and play around with it till you get the size you want. I want a few inches bigger than my head measurement to make sure it would have the cartoonish size I wanted. Cut your first piece of 16g wire with an extra inch and tape it into a circle at a half inch on either side.

The rest of this was a bit of trial and error with my tape measure. With my base circle on the floor I started to tape my four supports in 16g wire for the top and 3 piece support for the back of the hat. Once they were in position I started to add in the smaller supports to make sure things stayed in shape. Don't be afraid to go a little duct tape crazy if you feel like you need a little more support.

Next step is adding the cotton batting around the wire. Take a piece of your cotton batting and your needle and thread and start to stitch it to the wire to begin. I started with the inside of the hat and along the rim to make sure it was going to be nice and cushioned against my head. Add in mre pieces until the hat is completely covered. In hind sight I wish I had added another layer or two to hide the wire shape so you may want to repeat this step a couple more times.

On to the the hardest step! Since the hat was such an odd shape it was hard to pre plan a pattern for the outer materiel. So taking some scrap fabric I draped it over the hat and pinned as close to the shape as possible. Once the fabric took the shape I wanted I cut about a ½ inch from the pins to create a seam allowance and sewed it up.

Putting the fabric back over the hat I made sure it looked alright before taking out the stitches and cutting my real fabric using it as a pattern piece. After sewing the real fabric and pinning the edges snugly around the base of the hat and to the separate piece for the back of the hat I very carefully hand stitched them in place

Not Pictured is how I made the sash piece and the trim but it's very simple to do both. Measure where you'd like the fabric to sit around the hat and how high you would like it to sit. Double your height measurement to create the bunched up look and cut your fabric. Once you've sewn it together just slip it into place. Add a couple stitch to keep in place on the hat and you're all set for the trim! You can hand stitch it to the hat but the quick and easy way to to heat up your glue gun and follow your wire supports to create her hat stripes.

For any questions or clarifications just send me a message!