Instead of having a Halloween party at school, my daughter’s class has Scarecrow Day. Dressing up as a scarecrow is optional but I wanted to make her a scarecrow hat. She is very particular about fabrics and doesn’t like anything rough or coarse to be touching her so I decided to make the hat out of felt. Kara’s other restriction was that I could not use real raffia because she said it would make her itch.

I happily started making her a scarecrow hat with poster board and felt. Unfortunately in the end, it looked too much like a witches hat even with all the hand sewn patches. It was my first big craft fail! I was a little devastated because it took me a long time to make that hat and it didn’t turn out very well. I knew that I had to give it another try but I procrastinated for a few days. When I was out on a lunch date with my husband I told him about my scarecrow hat woes. He said that my problem with the scarecrow hat is that I try to do everything too perfectly and a scarecrow is supposed to be shabby and imperfect. I knew he was right!

For my second attempt, I tried not to be so perfect. In fact, I tried hard to make things look imperfect! Here’s how it turned out.

Supplies:

• 18 inch square piece of felt
• 1 9x12inch piece of felt (coordinating color with large piece)
• 1 8.5×11 inch piece of tan cardstock
• paper trimmer
• 2 fake flowers
• button for flower center
• scissors
• ruler
• tape
• hot glue gun
• hot glue
• felt scraps (optional)

Directions:

1. I wanted a circle of felt 18 inches in diameter but didn’t have any circular items of that size to trace onto the felt. So, I made perpedicular lines that were 18 inches each and then outline my guestimated (yes I know that isn’t a real word) circle with a white crayon. Then cut out the circle.

2. I put the piece of felt on Kara’s head and shaped it to fit her head with folded over pleats of the felt. I used a piece of tape to keep each pleat in place.

3. I took the taped felt off of Kara’s head and then used hot glue to hold the pleats in place. I removed the tape that held the pleats in place once the pleat was hot glued.

4. I took the coordinating piece of felt, measure and cut out 2 strips of 2 cm x 12 inches. I know I mixed up the units of measurement but I didn’t want a whole inch and 2 cm looked like a good size.

5. Next I used the paper trimmer to cut 1/4 inch strips of the tan cardstock. Once cut, I accordion folded the paper to resemble raffia.

6. I taped the strips of light purple felt together and then had Kara put the hat on. Then I taped the felt on her head so that it helped shaped a brim for her hat below it. I then placed a few pieces of “raffia” here and there between the felt strips and the hat.

7. I hot glued the felt strips and the “raffia” strips to the felt hat. I removed the tape that held the felt in place as I moved along.

8. I used hot glue to layer two flowers and a button together and put it on the front of the hat.

9. Optional: I used some small pink felt strips and hand stitched them to the hat.

I wanted Kara to have a scarecrow shirt as well. I bought her a plain purple t-shirt and hot glued raffia strips along the neckline. I cut a few rectangles of felt and hand stitched them to her shirt. I also cut out a pink piece of felt into a heart and hand stitched it to the area where her heart is.

Kara told me she received many compliments on her scarecrow outfit throughout the school day. Here’s me and my little scarecrow after her party at school.

Have a great weekend!