How to Make Your Very Own Graduation Cap!

If you can’t read that title, it’s ok, neither can I. All it says is “How to Make Your Very Own Graduation Cap!”

If you, like me, happen to be graduating during the Coronavirus and therefore don’t get a traditional graduation, you’re probably not going to be finding traditional graduation attire either. This being cap, gown, tassel, etc.

Sure yeah, you can always still buy one (that being a cap) but got a way cheaper solution for you that isn’t too difficult to pull off. Plus, the homemade version is waaaaay more durable than the factory manufactured mass produced graduation cap you’d drop over $10 on Amazon.

All you’ll need is:

• A good sized piece fabric (it needs to be big enough to cover the hat part and make the head piece out of. Mine was probably a foot wide and four feet long)

• A heavy duty cardboard piece (I found a box lid)

• A button for the tassel hanger

• Narrow elastic (¼” or thereabouts)

• A hot glue gun and hot glue sticks

• Needle and thread to match your fabric

• A sewing machine too

Step 1: Make the top of the hat

Measure out a square from the cardboard. I started out at 7x7" but that was too small so I added a couple strips to two of the sides to make the square 9x9" which I felt was about the right size, but feel free to make bigger or smaller to your liking.

At this point you may also feel the need to write inspirational quotes to your future self (who will likely be struggling with the gluing step) on the cardboard. Feel free to do so. You’ll thank me later.

Step 2: Cut fabric

Next you’ll want to cut out a square of your fabric. Place the cardboard square on your fabric and cut so that the fabric makes a larger diamond shape outside of the cardboard. So the corners of your cardboard should be pointing to the straight side of the fabric square. This doesn’t need to be too much larger than the cardboard but should overlay a bit.

Step 3: Glue the fabric

Grab the hot glue gun and relocate to the only working outlet in your house, which happens to be by the fireplace that doesn’t work (or wait, is that only a thing in my house?).

I started by gluing one corner of the fabric down to the middle(ish) of the cardboard. Then I folded the opposite corner on top of that. Now, I will say that if you want the top to look nice and smooth you’ve got to pull it pretty tight. I would also not recommend working with material that has too much of a stretch to it. My curtains were super weird and flowing and moved in all the wrong ways so it was pretty difficult to get the thing to lay smooth and not look weird on the top.

Once those two are done, move to the other two corners. At this point I realized that I needed to not have raw edges on the bottom of my cap, because of fraying and messiness, and we want this to look as clean and polished as possible (I realize there are a lot of “ands” in that sentence). Of course, if your material doesn’t look bad with the edges you can just leave them. Mine, however, was fraying all over the place and I had to hide that mess somewhere. To do this, I very simply folded the edges under before gluing and voila no nasty strings.

Step 4: The button

Button -> square of fabric -> combine

Take the button you’re using and a scrap of fabric. Put the fabric over top of the button and bunch it up at the bottom so that the whole button is covered. Very tightly wrap the bunched fabric with thread so that it won’t come undone. Then secure the thread with a dab of hot glue and trim the excess fabric.

Next, if you’re a perfectionist (like me) measure to find the middle of the cap and hot glue the button down. Or if you’re more in the mood to move on (also like me) just eyeball where you think the middle looks like it would be and glue the button down

Step 5: Cut and sew the cap

Now for the hard part. You’re going to cut two pieces of fabric that roughly resemble a trapezoid. Except that for the back it’ll need to be slightly rounded and the bottom should have a bit of a curve. I made mine about 6 inches tall and about 12 inches long at the longest point. These were my head measurements, which I got by wrapping a tape measure around my head about where I thought the cap would sit and also from the top of my head to where I wanted the cap to end. It is not at all an exact science and I recommend trying it out with some practice fabric first.

This is the shape you’re going for (more or less)

Once you’ve practiced enough and gotten the shape to the point where it seems about right you can cut it out of the main fabric and then sew the front of the cap and the back of the cap right sides together. The end result should be a ring that fits on your head like a crown.

Step 6: Hem

Hem the top and bottom edges of your crown. I just folded the edges over and sewed a very narrow hem all around the top and bottom. If you've got more cooperative fabric (which I highly suggest using) you can do a rolled hem, which is just folding the edge over once and then over again and sewing along the edge of that.

Step 7: Elastic and casing

Measure the length of elastic you’ll need by stretching it at the base of where you think the cap will sit on your head. Stretch the elastic out so that the cap will be sure to stay on when you walk down the runway. Then cut the elastic to that length.

Sew a casing on the back of the cap for the elastic to go through. I was being lazy (and my roommate was using my sewing machine) so I hand sewed the casing. To do this, I measured a little tunnel just long enough to enclose the piece of elastic I’d measured out for the back of my skull. Then I folded the sewn edge over just it was just slightly (slightly) larger than the width of my elastic. I used a simple running stitch to secure it (don’t ask me what a running stitch is, I really don’t know it just sounds cool. I just went up and down through the material a few times till it seemed secure enough. Use your best judgement).

Fold the elastic in half and use a pin to mark the middle, so that it’ll be even on both sides of the cap. Stretch it out and see where it ends at, mark it. Thread the elastic through and secure it at both ends. I just looped a bit of thread through the elastic and fabric and tied a knot. Not that secure but good enough.

It all sounds super complicated but really so long as the thing stays on your head with the addition of bobby pins it’ll be just fine.

Step 7: Attach the cap to the cardboard

Glue your cap to the top of the hat. Make sure the front and back seams are lined up with the corners you want for front and back and glue it down so that there’s what could possibly resemble a shape similar to a circle.

In the end it should look something like this.

Step 8: Decorate

It’s a tradition for some reason to bedazzle, paint, or otherwise bedeck graduation caps. So, now that you’ve got a cap, you can decorate it to your heart’s content because it is yours.

I chose to skip this additional step because, A) I did that in high school; B) It’s kinda silly when no one but whoever follows me on social media will see it; and C) There was just no time.

Side note: I would highly recommend starting projects, such as this one, at 10:30 pm the night before graduation. The enforced deadline adds just the right amount of adrenaline and pressure to ensure that whatever you produce will be, if not the best it could be, at least something.

Woop woop!!! Now go graduate and take on the world.

BEFORE & AFTER:

Additionally, I would like to apologize for the poor quality of pictures in this tutorial (can we call this a tutorial? If you attempt to make a cap from this then I guess so, but if not I suppose it's just a narrative... but, back to your originally scheduled program).

Since I made the cap late at night the lighting was terrible which was not at all assisted by the fact that I lived in a basement (please take a moment to appreciate that truly horrendous carpet). Then the other two are the only ones I have from actual graduation and it was raining and cold and all around yucky and I didn’t want to stand outside for too long. Then I moved, packed all my stuff up, and threw it into storage unit. Honestly, I have no idea which box the cap ended up in or I would put it on and do a professional photoshoot for my grand reveal.

Anyhow, long story short, I'm too lazy to remake this whole project to retake pictures to make a better tutorial.

If you attempt this please let me know how it goes!! I’d love to see all your caps at whatever school you attend.