How to decorate a hat for the autumn holiday

Autumn is not only a crying sky underfoot. This is a colorful carnival of flowers, berries, fruits and vegetables. This is a lush scattering of golden leaves. This is the time for matinees and autumn holidays for preschoolers and primary schoolchildren.

Decorating a hat for the autumn ball

The children learn songs and poems, and the parents prepare costumes, in which the central role is always given to the original headdress. A hat decorated with the gifts of nature will perfectly complement the outfit, and it’s not at all difficult to do it yourself.

What you will need

There are no expenses for the hat and its decoration. All the material used is something that can be borrowed from your wardrobe, collected in the park or cut at the dacha. If you have a ready-made straw or felt hat, great, all we have to do is decorate it with flowers, fruits, vegetables, leaves, and pine cones. Flowers can be taken live, artificial, dried, fabric, paper.

For decoration we will need the following blanks:

• leaves of maple, fern, and other plants;
• plastic fruits, artificial flowers;
• acorns, cones;
• rowan brushes;
• PVA glue, superglue;
• flexible wire;
• threads with a needle;
• fantasy;
• patience.

If there is no suitable headdress, with a little effort, create one from ordinary packaging cardboard using a needle and thread or superglue. You will need colored paper for pasting or gift (packaging) paper for draping.

Let's get started:

• cut out a circle from cardboard of the same diameter as the width of the field you need to make, for example, 32 cm;
• inside we outline and cut out a second circle of smaller diameter - 20 cm for the bottom;
• from the remaining cardboard we cut out a crown 11 cm high and 63 cm long;
• sew the edges of the crown, then the bottom with the crown;
• we sew the brim of the hat to the resulting product;
• Cover everything with colored paper.

Important! Instead of colored paper, you can take wrapping paper and cover it separately with the brim and top of the hat, draping a little in places of “extra” volume. The result will be better if you use thin fabric such as satin, silk or organza.

That's it, the headdress is ready. Now let's think about the general concept of the decor and the details that will decorate the hat.

Hat decoration options

First of all, you need to decide what should come out of this - a headdress with a couple of flowers, a hat with several fruits and twigs on one side, or a completely decorated surface. Depending on this, decorative elements should be prepared. Let's look at all three ideas.

Option one – minimum decorations:

• we glue several maple leaves to the brim and crown of the hat, arranging them in the form of flower petals;
• We place several plastic fruits inside, securing them with a thin wire on the back side;
• next to the fruit, attach several fern leaves, like feathers to a hat;
• If desired, you can add flowers nearby - live or artificial, acorns, pine cones.

Important! The wire that will hold the decoration elements can injure the scalp. To avoid this, stick a piece of cardboard directly onto its ends on the inside of the headdress.

Option two – partial decoration:

• We paint several cones in bright colors, apply a silver or golden layer on top;
• attach one cone in the center of the bottom at the top;
• we place the rest in a row next to each other and glue them with a glue gun or attach them to the crown (not to the brim) with threads, wrapping them around the base of the cone;
• You can stick leaves or flowers between them.

Option three - complete, total decoration of the headdress:

• cover the crown and lower part of the brim with dry (or paper) leaves;
• Place brushes of rowan, viburnum or elderberry on the bottom so that its entire surface is covered;
• secure them with wire from the inside;
• Decorate the upper part of the fields around the entire circumference with small fruits, grapes, flowers, sunflowers, alternating them; it is better to use light artificial substitutes.

Which option will be more acceptable for you is up to you to decide. We are confident that these ideas will become the starting point for the flight of creative thought, and you and your children will come up with something special. And all we can do is give some recommendations for decorating the hat.

Some tips

• A plastic jar that matches the diameter of the child’s head can serve as the top part of a hat. Cardboard fields of the desired size should be glued to it. The jar can be replaced with a plastic bucket or a round popcorn bag.
• Instead of using colored paper, you can wrap the hat with twine, laying it evenly around the crown treated with glue. You can soak the twine in bleach ahead of time for a beautiful shade.
• If you use leaves (for example, maple) in decoration, dry them under a press and cut off the long stem. Glue with PVA glue.
• To create a miracle flower with your own hands, cut out several circles of different diameters from fabric and connect them in the center with a bead. The circles don't have to be perfectly even. A slightly irregular shape will add some flair. A beautiful flower is obtained by layering.
• Beads, leather leaves, open chestnut boxes, dried roses, rye ears, ladybugs from presented bouquets - all this will probably be found at home and can be placed on a headdress in a fancy composition.
• Don't overload your child's hat - its weight shouldn't be a problem. For decoration, take artificial flowers and vegetables, they weigh little. Remember that the baby is going to a party, and a heavy headdress will not allow him to feel comfortable.