Party Hats
These party hats can be as sophisticated or as silly as you like, depending on the colors and patterns of paper you use; reduce the size slightly, and they're perfect for a child's birthday party. Whatever occasion your hats are destined for, sturdy ribbon chin ties will keep them in place until the fun is over.
Tools and Materials
Decorative paper
Colored vellum
Sheets of double-sided adhesive
Pencil
9- or 10-inch plate
Scissors
White glue
1/2-inch-wide grosgrain ribbon
Party Hats How-To
1. Start by backing two 10-inch squares (9-inch for kids' hats) of decorative paper with colored vellum: Attach vellum to paper with a sheet of double-sided adhesive. (For the hats shown here, we used one piece of patterned paper and one piece of solid color paper for each hat.) Trace the outline of a 10-inch (or 9-inch) plate onto each square, and cut out the circles.
2. Lay the patterned circle on top of the plain one, overlapping by about one-third the circles' diameter; attach with white glue. Once the glue has dried, cut slits for the ribbon ties: At seven o'clock on the left circle and five o'clock on the right, cut two parallel 1/2-inch slits, 1/4 inch apart and about 1/2 inch in from the edge. Thread each side with a 12-inch length of 1/2-inch-wide grosgrain ribbon. The ribbon should come out through the inner slit and go back in through the outer slit, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang on the inside of the hat. Glue overhang to the hat's inner surface.
3. While the glue dries, make the tassel: Cut out a 9-by-5-inch rectangle of vellum. Place it on your work surface with a short side facing you. From the top left corner, measure 2 inches to the right, and mark. Cut in a diagonal line from this point to the bottom left corner; you should have a piece that measures 9 inches long, 3 inches wide at the top, and 5 inches wide at the bottom, with one right angle at the right side of the base. Along the diagonal edge, cut into the vellum at 3/8-inch intervals, stopping about 1 inch short of the straight edge. Place a pencil at the bottom (wider) edge, and roll the strip tightly around the pencil. Carefully curl each segment of the tassel with scissors.
4. Glue the curled tassel into the upper v-shaped indentation between the two circles, and let the glue dry. Bring the other edges of the circles together to overlap by one-third their diameter, and glue them together. Press together until glue is dry.
