These pointy hats are usually worn in places such as China, Japan, Korea and Vietnam and are designed to protect the wearer from the sun and the rain. They are also called sedge hats, rice hats, paddy hats and coolie hats.
Make your own Conical Hat for some Far East fancy dress.
You will need :
- Large pizza box (not the takeaway kind but the ones from the freezer section)
- Scissors
- Two pencils
- String
- Paint
- Sticky tape or stapler
- Hole punch
How to make it…
- Cut one of the large sides from the pizza box and place it printed side down.
- Attach the two pencils together securely with a piece of string which is about the length of half the box side.
- Place one pencil in the middle of the piece of card and place the other pencil on the card so that the string is taught.
- Using the middle pencil as an anchor, pull the second pencil around in a circle. Make sure you keep the string taught at all times. Pull the pencil all the way around until you have drawn a full circle.
- Cut the circle out with scissors.
- Paint the circle in a colour of your choice and leave to dry.
- If you would like, draw or paint a design onto the hat. We chose to draw Chinese lettering.
- Cut a slit into the circle from the side to the middle of the circle.
- Pull one side of the slit over the other until the circle resembles a wide cone.
- Secure with sticky tape or a stapler.
- Punch two holes opposite sides from each other with a hole punch.
- Thread string through and tie to keep the hat on your head.
Tips…
- If you would like to dress up as the Kung Fu Panda, combine the Asian Conical Hat with a Panda Mask.
- The pencil compass can be a little tricky. The circle doesn’t have to be absolutely perfect. If you are making several hats you may want to make a template circle to draw around.
- If you have a stapler use it, as sticky tape will come undone easily.
- Make sure the string is tight enough to hold the hat on your head.
- Use ribbon instead of string for a more comfortable and nicer looking strap.