How to make a Mario or Luigi hat -

My kids are very particular when it comes to their costumes. They like all of the details to be just right, so a couple years ago when they wanted to have a Mario themed birthday party I started making prototypes of the hats that we'd give the guests as favors. After a few unsatisfactory attempts I finally came up with this version - which happily turned out to be the easiest to make. We ended up making 16 of these one evening. The kids were able to help tracing the circles and cutting them out, I just had to supervise and sew.

Polyester fleece is one of my favorite costume making materials. Like felt, there is no right side or wrong side and it doesn't fray so raw edges are fine. But unlike felt, fleece is stretchy and elastic, so measuring and sizing can be very casual. Since it's kind of thick it holds shapes really well and even really messy sewing gets blurred in the fuzz. My sewing machine usually needs to be cleaned after I work with fleece, but washing the material first gets rid of a lot of loose fibers. Sewing by hand is also a reasonable option for this project, and as crazy as it sounds safety pins or staples would also work.

Two hats can be made from half of a yard of fleece (1/4 yard will be too narrow.) These hats will fit anyone from a toddler to an adult.


Fold the fleece in half so that you are cutting out two pieces at a time. I use the lid from a 5 gallon pail to trace a circle on the fabric. (I use whatever marker I have around, it won't show.) You don't have to use a lid, you just need to make a circle with at least a 12" diameter.

Cut out the two circles and keep the corner that is left over - this is going to be the bill of the cap.
Round off the corner and cut off the thin ends.
On one of the rounds, trace a smaller circle. It should have about a 4.5" diameter. This is going to be the head hole. It seems small, but fleece is stretchy, remember?
These are all the parts cut out.

Sew the two rounds together about 1/2" from the outer edge. Sew along the outer edge of the bill.
Turn both pieces inside out.
Place the open edges of the bill along the edge of the small circle and stitch all 3 layers together.
The hat is now ready for the finishing touches.

I like to use white funky foam or fun foam - whichever you call it - to make a circle for the initial - trace the lid from a can of frozen juice concentrate if you want to keep the lid theme going . I use a safety pin to secure it in place, if you make the safety pin come out and go back in through the letter it will be almost invisible.

Black funky foam mustaches complete the look - we just attach them with double stick tape.