This week, I had the privilege of making Robin Hood Hats for eleven men. Merry men, of course. My son, his math teacher and 9 of his classmates decided a few weeks ago to perform the song “Men in Tights” from the movie “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” for the middle school talent show. They were a very committed group, giving up recesses to practice every day. And they delivered. Their performance was spot-on, as indicated by the screaming girls in the bleachers.
With a little over a week to go before the show, Tucker came to me and said “Hey Mom, do you think you could make us Robin Hood hats?” Having an artsy, crafty reputation to uphold, I immediately said yes. Then I spent the next couple of nights lying awake, trying to come up with a pattern that would do their bravery and boldness justice. After a few failed muslin mock-ups, I awoke one morning with an ah-ha moment, went to the sewing room and it came together as smoothly as if I actually had a pattern. Of course, now I do.
I know most of you have absolutely no reason to make a Robin Hood hat in the middle of April, but file this one away for Halloween or on the off chance someone in your house will want one to wear to the new Robin Hood movie that’s coming out next month.
I used felt for the hats, the kind you can buy by the yard. It was made for adult-sized heads, although their head sizes did vary a little, but all seemed to work. It would need to be scaled down for a small child.
Cut this shape, with the short, straight edge on the right on the fold. You can download a PDF of the pattern here.
Stitch, right sides together, along this edge:
Flatten the back point with the seam centered, as shown.
Stitch a curved line through all layers, about 2 1/2 inches from the point and tapering at each side. I made a cardboard template to stitch next to so that all the hats would be the same.
Cut the excess corner away above the stitching line. Turn the hat right side out.
Fold up the brim on the back of the hat 2 inches. Press with steam iron.
Fold the remaining brim up, tapering toward the front and ending about 1/2 inch on each side of the seam at the front.
Here’s the hat army, waiting for feathers.
I hot-glued the feather in place. Here’s a view from the back.
This is a paparazzi shot from the show.
I knew him before he was famous.
The boys cut their own tunics and arm bands like pros. And Mr. Massey, their math teacher, actually went out and found green tights. It was an amazing performance and an experience I doubt any of them will soon forget. My heart swelled a little when the boys changed after they were done and all came back still wearing their hats!
Thanks so much for making these. I’m still wearing mine as I type this.
It was my pleasure Nick!
I love them Mom. I think Tucker should wear that outfit for Halloween!
Those are so great – thanks for sharing the pattern. That would be a fun addition to the dress-up box.
Thanks Randi! I was thinking it might work for Peter Pan too – double duty in the dress-up box!
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Found you via CraftGossip. This is brilliant. I collect posts on robin hood related gear, so I really love this. Peace, love and tinkerdust.
I’m glad you found your way here. Since you’re a collector, I’ll bet you have some pretty impressive stuff!
Thanks so much for this pattern, CraftyStaci! I used it and my son (8) and I sewed them by hand, and they look fabulous! We’re going to be Green Arrow and his son Connor Hawke for Halloween, and this was the last element of our costumes. Plus, my son was thrilled to be able to say ‘he made it himself’ and has been wearing the hat all day.
Thanks again!
I love the fact that you let him make his own hat! Those sound like great costumes – I’m a big superhero fan. I’m glad I could help!
Thanks for the tutorial. It took me less than an hour and turned out almost as nice as yours. You saved my bacon!
mr
I’m glad to hear it, Monica!
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Thank you Thank you! I loved the story behind the hats! The thank you is because it’s the eleventh hour before our play Camelot opens and I need to make hats for the guys. Your pattern is easy to follow and the finished product looks great. The minions and I will be hard at work for the next two hours. Again Thank you!
How did I miss this? I’m glad the pattern was useful Lorena and I hope they turned out great!
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great.
just perfect.
beautiful, simple, fits my imaginary idea of hunter.
the tutorial is very good explained.
thanks a lot!
Thanks for visiting…I hope you find a good use for the hat!
Thank you so much for sharing. I found you with a google search. My daughter is having a Tinkerbell party for her 4th in April and I wanted to have something for the boys. I don’t think they will appreciate wings and tutus!
My daughter is a big Tinkerbell fan too! You’re right, the hats might have a better chance with the boys though!
Wow. this is great. They look superb. I just found your website from Craft Gossip. I love your tutes. Do you have a pdf of this pattern like you do for some of your other tutes? Did I miss it. I only see the image of your pattern piece.
Thanks.
That is an excellent point! This was one of my first tutorials, before I really got the whole PDF-thing. I just added it to the post, right above the photo of it. Thank you for mentioning it!
Thank you!!! This is perfect! My 4.5 yr old is currently obsessed with Sleeping Beauty and wanted a hat like Prince Phillip in the Disney movie (basically a red Robin Hood hat). I think I’ll do one in red and one in green to cover to pre-existing request for a Robin Hood/Peter Pan hat!! He had every faith that I could make one. I wasn’t so sure millenry was in my skill-set, but after seeing this tutorial, I’m no longer worried! Thanks for helping me grant his wish!
Oh, you just made my day Shannon! I love the thought of little boys running around with this hat. I know it’s been used for Robin Hood and Peter Pan, but Prince Phillip is a new one! I hope your little guy loves it!
thanks so much!!! this is extremely perfect for a green arrow costume i’m making for a superhero-themed party ^__^ you made my day!! i was in a real trouble figuring out how to make the hat, but this one is totally perfect!! thanks!!!
Glad I could help Laurie!
This is a terrific tutorial! I’m doing Robin Hood as a musical (an original one written by Rene Pfister) and was dreading dealing with the hats!
Thank you!
The nice thing about the felt is that it has a velcro effect with hair…ours even stayed on through a flip! Hopefully they’ll work out well for your play!
This is fantastic! An absolutely perfect accessory for my bardic get-up for my larping group, thanks for sharing
Glad it was helpful Angelika – and I learned a new word…now I know what larping is!
Great instructions, thank you! But the story makes it – just great!
The funny thing is, well over a year later and he STILL has that hat (and the rest of the outfit) proudly displayed in his bedroom!
I am having a hard time with this one, but I am a newbie. I can’t figure out where the “back” is you mentioned, and I think I cut the point off my hat. It still is just two sides, like a couple of felt wings.
Ok, look at the third photo down, the side view of the hat with the red stitching along the top. The back I’m referring to would be the upper right corner in that photo. You flatten that corner so the fold at the back and the seam at the top meet. That’s the part that will sit at the back crown of your head when you’re finished. Does that clear it up at all?
I made smaller versions for my one and two year old with two craft sheets of felt, so i purposely started out with two “wings” like you ended up with. On the back of the hat, about halfway up, make a small snip in the fabric the width of your seam allowance. when you are sewing the pieces right sides together, start at the point and sew to the snip. then turn the hat right side out and sew the rest of the way so that your top seam faces the inside of the hat and the bottom/back seam faces the outside of the hat. this way when you fold the brim, you will have no exposed seams.
i don’t know what to do about cutting the point off though :-/
Very clever Shiree – thanks for sharing that!
Thanks for your pattern. It turned out great. I was making a Robin Hood costume for my 8 year old for book week. Incidentally, I had to have 3 tries at the hat before I got the right size, so now my 5 year old and I have one too!!!
That’s just because Robin Hood can’t be without his Merry Men!
Thank you. I used this pattern and black felt last autumn to make Prince Charming’s Hat for Cinderella, This year I’m back to find it again and make 2 hats for Maid Marion’s Merry men. Both times its costumes for a fancy dress pram race pub crawl . Only in England would 100+ people fund raise for an air ambulance by dressing up and dragging a wheeled trolley round 5 pubs while getting drunk.
I’m glad the pattern has been useful for you Sarah. And hey, at least they’re using their drunkenness for a good cause!
Thank you for this tutorial!!!
You’re very welcome!
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what a wonderful project! I’ve linked to you here: http://dollarstoremom.com/2011/09/make-a-robin-hood-hat/
Thanks for the link Breanna!
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Just wanted to say hi and let you know that I LOVE this! I used this tutorial last year when my 3yo wanted to be Prince Phillip for Halloween. It was so perfect. And this year I used it as a jumping-off point for a Pinocchio costume hat. Thanks for sharing
Pinocchio? I love it!
Hi, there! Just completed my Robin Hood costume thanks to your easy hat pattern. Thanks for sharing! Looks great and it was so easy!
Thanks for this wonderful tutorial! It worked for us, and I’ve NEVER sewn anything on a sewing machine before! My 7 year old son is going to be Robin Hood for Halloween, and now that he has his hat, he is so proud of his costume, I’m not sure we’ll be able to get him to take it off for bed. My husband likes the hat so much, he’s asked us to make another, so he can be Little John when they go out trick-or-treating. Wow! If sewing can be THIS easy, maybe I can actually do other projects.
Thanks again! You made our Halloween spectacular!
By the way, one suggestion…. As a first-time sewer, I didn’t understand when I made the first test hat (on scrap fabric) that I was supposed to use one piece of fabric, folded over where the pattern says fold. **Yes, I know how dumb that probably makes me sound.**
To make it “idiot-proof,” you might want to explain that when you cut, you want to use a single piece of fabric, folded into two layers, right sides together, which are folded over where the pattern says “fold”.
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Hi! Just wanted to say thanks for the pattern. I used it for a Halloween Robin Hood costume this year and it turned out perfectly. Thanks for the help you gave to this complete stranger from the Internet! (You can see the results on my blog today if you are interested!)
Thanks for sharing all your Halloween adventures! And Sharon, thanks for the suggestion. I think it’s time for a post on some of the commonly used sewing terms for you brand-new sewers out there!
Being from Nottingham UK, the home of Robin Hood of course I would be interested in this! well done. Loving all your tutorials btw Thanks
Thanks so much Gill!
Thanks from Brazil, its Carnaval time here!
Oh, wow…maybe I should deliver one in person!
I made a prince phillip hat for my son using this tutorial. It took me about 15 minutes and less than $5! Thank you!
You’re very welcome Deanna – I’m glad it was helpful!
Hi! The tutorial looks great, but I have a question about the measurements. How did you determine the length of the hat (meaning the horizontal measurement in your image of the pattern)? I am making this hat for my 5 year old nephew, whose head measures 49cm around. Would that measurement on the pattern then just be 24.5cm? Or do I add extra for the front brim? Thanks so much!
Hi Rachel! You’d want to add extra. I’m estimating here, but I want to say it was about 3 inches per side beyond my son’s head measurement. My advice would be to go a little larger than you think because you can always make it smaller, but once it’s cut you can’t go bigger. If you find it’s too big, just increase the size of the seams until it fits. That’s one thing I love about felt! Good luck!
Thanks! I’m making the costumes for our lastest high school production and when I searched for a Robin Hood hat pattern, your link was the first to come up. This is going to save me so much time!
Glad it was helpful Stephanie!
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Well, it’s April of 2012, and what do you know? I need a Robin Hood hat for this Saturday. =)
Can’t thank you enough for posting this. I had 3 failed paper pattern attempts and I just checked the web and here you were!! YAY!!
Someone else needs a Robin Hood hat in April? That’s hilarious Susan! I’m glad you found it here!
If you follow the link http://www.myimmortals.com/Crafty_Stacy_hat.jpg, you can see me and my hubby as Little Red Riding Hood and the Woodsman at out Church Follies. We did a Fractured Fairy Tales act. I made your Robin Hood style hat in a gold and rust heavy weight damask. It came out just perfectly!
Oh my gosh Susan – I love it! Thanks so much for sharing the photo. I’m a little jealous of that feather!
Thank you so much for posting this! I scaled it down and made a child’s version and it worked great. It was simple to make and turned out so professional looking! Really, thank you…this tutorial was easy to follow, and SUCH a help! I never would have figured out those pattern shapes by myself!
It was my pleasure Angela! To this day, this is still one of my favorite projects!
Hi Crafty Staci! I made this hat as a treat for my 3-year old GIRL! I thought it was interesting she saw the Disney Robin Hood movie and wanted to be Robin Hood, not Maid Marian. She keeps correcting me when I say her real name, or even “her” or “she.” “I’m not a girl, I’m Robin Hood.” She’s (I mean he’s cracking me up). I made this pattern with 2 sheets of 12″ felt from the art section of my local grocery store. The sheets work great too for a small head, you just have to put two of the cut-outs together and sew down the right hand side as well for the back (see 3rd pic down). Thanks a lot for these simple instructions!
Good for her…I mean him! For several months when he was about 3 or 4, my son insisted we call him “Hot Wheels Leading the Way.” The whole thing. Thanks for the tip on using felt sheets!
I was randomly searching for Robin Hood hats and came upon your post. I love it! I’m going to bookmark this for possibly Halloween use in the future. Thank you!
I’m glad it was helpful Randi!
You saved me! Many thanks for putting it out there.
You’re very welcome Lorraine!
Such a good patern! I am going to make this for my Green Arrow costume for my 18th birthday
Happy Birthday James! What a fantastic costume to celebrate that milestone!
do you happen to know where Mr Massey found the tights?
I don’t know where he found them Andrea, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t in the boys’ department!
You can get them at superstore here! The womens section though! They are about 6 bucks.
One word, Staci. “Awesome!” Thank you for the pattern and the simple directions. I made two of them in less than an hour. I took 1″ off the top and bottom edges before I sewed it and took off 3/4″ less from the point to make one for my four-year old. Oh, boy, that made his day! Thanks again. I will come back to your website again. Tracy
I’m glad it was easy to adjust for your little boy – thanks for sharing that Tracy!
Thanks for going to the trouble of drafting and posting this. I got the hat right on the first try. One question, though. Did you add seam allowance to your template? I found the scale to be a little small for my 11-year old. Just wondering if an addition 5/8″ would’ve made the difference. Thanks again – worked great.
I used a 1/4″ seam allowance for this. The smaller seam allowance is typical in crafts, but the 5/8″ is using in clothing, which this hat could fall into. Sorry that was unclear Cheryl!
Making this for my halloween costume! Disney’s Robin Hood. This is perfect. Thanks so much, I was lost as how to do this.
One of my favorite movies! Good luck KC!
thanks for these instructions!! my daughter wants to be robin hood for halloween (or is it robinette?) and i made the rest of the costume but was going to buy a hat. panicked when i couldn’t find one at the costume store! found one online for $30, yikes! then i saw your instructions and i can’t believe how simple and inexpensive it is. thanks again for posting this online, you made my day!
I’m glad it was helpful Kelly!
Ok, so I’m still really confused about step three. I’m not really sure what to do with the back point…
When you look at the photo where it mentions to flatten the hat, you’re looking at the top of the head. After you sew the seam in that step, it will be perpendicular to the first seam. Does that help at all Alli?
Yes it does! Thanks so much!
Great! You’re very welcome Alli!
Thanks so much Staci – my daughter was asking to be Robin Hood for Halloween and I was fairly in the dark as to how to make it happen! Like you, they always expect me to have brilliant crafty ideas so I was a bit intimidated (the motto in our house is “no plastic costumes” – which basically means in all things, if you are going to do something make the effort to make it good not just get by). Hopefully with this I can keep up my great Halloween costume making mom status. Thanks again!!!
You’re very welcome Suzannah! The great thing about making good costumes is that they last a lot longer in the play box once Halloween is over!
Thank you for this – just made one for my son’s Robin Hood costume!
You’re very welcome Brenda!
I scaled the pattern down a ton and made a Robin Hood hat for a pumpkin! My 1st grade son is having a pumpkin parade at school and each pumpkin needs to be a literary character! Thanks so much for the tutorial!
What a great idea – thanks for sharing it!
Thank you for helping my 11 year-old son create his own Robin Hood Halloween costume!
The hat worked out GREAT!
I love that you let him make it himself Lana!
Thanks Staci. I have made one before and had many attemps and hours spent before a great finished product. I did not keep the pattern and regreted it since my son now needs to dress up like the Pide Piper. I tried looking on the web and found your great sight. Thanks for the printable pattern and all the saved time.
I’m glad it was helpful Shelly – and that’s a new one in the cast of characters that have used this hat!
Just finished making a hat for my daughter’s halloween costume. Thanks so much for posting this!
My pleasure Karin!
Halloween is hours away and I saved this hat for last. Thanks for keeping it simple. I made mine out of a scrap of brown cordoury and made your pattern 1/4″ larger all the way around. I might add a chin strap so it doesn’t get lost if pushed back off my 14 year old son’s head, kind of like a cowboy hat idea. My son has special needs so, he is just wearing brown pants that he already has and a green polo and the hat. I think he will be okay with this. Thanks!
The chin strap is a great idea Margaret! Have fun tonight!
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Making a Prince Philip from Sleeping Beauty for a Medeval faire, and this will be perfect! Thank you for posting!!!!!!!!!!!
You’re very welcome Matt! Good luck!
Oh, I love you, CraftyStaci! You just made my life soooo much easier! My son needs a costume for his Robin Hood book report, and I am NOT a crafty person! Thank you so much!
Aww…thanks! Glad it was helpful!
How many yards of fabric did you need to buy in order to make 11 hats?
I don’t remember how much I ended up buying, but I do know it was was too much because I still have some of it left. Each hat will take about 28 1/2 by 8 1/2″, so if you can find the 60″ or 72″ wide felt you can get away with about 1 2/3 yards. Good luck!
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Hi!
I am doing GCSE Drama and I’m a costume designer. In my play we have the Ratcatcher/Pied Piper and this hat works brilliantly for his costume! Thank you so much! I’d have been completely stuck with out this!:)
You’re very welcome Lizzy!
My daughter is playing The Pied Piper next week in her school’s production of ‘RATS!’. I am not the craftiest person in the world, so i can never tell you how happy I am to have found your site! Thank you for such awesome instructions
I’m glad you were able to find your inner craftiness!
The play Rats! was last night and what a hit my daughter’s Pied Piper costume was. I completed the hat with a peacock feather and it was amazing!
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do you think they would work with paper?
I haven’t tried it, but I think they would. You could even still sew them, I’d just move the seam allowance to the outside, so you’re not trying to turn paper right side out. Good luck!
this was perfect, thank you for posting. I have zero crafty skills and still managed to complete this for my daughters costume. Thank you!
I’ll bet you DO have some crafty skills! I’m glad this pattern was helpful!
Thank you so much.. nothing like having your daughter’s piano teacher telling you that your child needs a Robin Hood costume for recital.