Santa Hat Decor DIY Tall Whimsical Santa Hats

This little project all started when one of my sweet nieces mentioned that she was looking

 for tall Santa Hats that she had seen at a store years ago and wanted to find them again.

They looked like this, whimsical Santa hats from Cracker Barrel but no longer available.

I was inspired to create something similar for her, about 24" tall and and narrow

enough to fit on a mantel.

I stopped at Lowe's and bought a roll of aluminum window screen

48" x 84" for $10 and a roll of duct tape. I wasn't exactly sure of my process 

at this point but thought I may need duct tape for it.

Next stop was the fabric store and purchased 1 yard of beautiful stretchy red velvet.

I also spotted curly white fur fabric that I thought would look great for the hat trim so 

I  bought 1/8 yard of the curly fur.

I drew an 8" diameter circle on scrap plywood and cut out with jigsaw.

I used a gallon paint can as my template.

I used a staple gun to attach the screen to the wood circle.

Use the smooth machine edge of the screen at the bottom, no need to cut the 

screen at this point, just start stapling around the wood circle.

Since I was stapling into plywood, I tried to place my staples

on an angle so they will be less likely to wiggle out.

You will end up with a 48" tall tube of wire on a wood circle base.

I realized the aluminum wire was not quite as substantial

as I envisioned so I used crumpled up pieces of newspaper end rolls

to beef it up. I glued the first bit down with the glue gun,

probably not necessary but it's what I did.

Since I do a lot of shipping with my Online Store, I had these paper rolls handy.

I get them from my local newspaper office for $1 each.

To secure the screen together, I wove small pieces of 20 gauge

wire through both screen pieces and folded the ends of 

the wire back into the hat shape using needle nose pliers.

This is what I used, I happened to have it on hand.

As you go along, stuffing paper, and "sewing" your screen together with the 

wire pieces, you will want to keep standing it up on it's base  to make sure you 

are liking the shape it is taking and that it is standing straight.

As you get closer to the top, you have to put your hand inside the cone

shape to really start twisting it tighter and smaller.

I ended up cutting some of the bulk of the screen off when I was

getting to the end to be able to make it small enough.

I saved this chunk of screen I cut from each hat to create the 

pom pom ball for the tip of the hat.

In addition to "sewing" the screen with the wire pieces, I also used duct tape

as I got closer to the top to help get that pointy shape.

I used duct tape on a couple of other areas that were kind of "pokey" 

from the cut edges of the aluminum . Just use it as necessary and you

 may even be able to use duct tape for the whole piece without the wire "sewing" part.

To give a smoother finish to apply my fabric on, I used Mod Podge and more

of the newspaper end rolls to decoupage a final layer on the hat forms.

I only used one layer of paper. I left them to dry in my heated room 

for about an hour and they were dry and ready to go.

I used hot glue to secure the red fabric at the base and worked my

way around the form. I only used the glue at the bottom, the very top

point of the hat and at the seam I created.

The glue did seep through and leave a mark on my fabric at

the bottom but it will be covered with the white fur trim.

I made a seam using hot glue along the side of the hat to secure the ends together.

I know I took a photo of the ball making process but they weren't in

my photos...not sure what happened!

To create the pom pom, I shaped the scrap screen pieces into a ball shape, "sewed" the 

ball top closed with wire and left the end of the wire exposed. They looked

like metal lollipops if you can't visualize what I mean.

I used hot glue to cover the balls with the white trim and stuck the 

exposed wire end into the hat tip and secured with more hot glue.

I think they turned out pretty cute and will get these in the mail to her.

They are about 27" tall, 8" diameter and are lightweight but stand sturdily.

I spend under $20 to make 2 hats and it took just a few hours.

Here they are in her home on her fireplace mantel.

Thanks for reading about my Santa hats!

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