CRAFT TIME: Let's Turn A Classic Mickey Ears Hat Into A Baseball Cap

I don't know about you guys, but as much as I like some of the classic Mickey Ears hats, I just never wear them:

For one, who wants to wear a chin strap? And for two, I need a hat with a brim when I'm at the parks, or else I'm Squinty McSquinterson in the Florida sun.

Still, when I saw these gorgeous rainbow ears for $2 at the Disney Clearance Outlet, of course I had to grab a couple pairs.

You can't get these this cheap anywhere online, but if you want the same hat it's also on Amazon for $11 Prime! The original price was $20, so that's still a great deal.

At first I tried attaching the felt hat to a baseball cap, which sort of works... but ends up looking like a hat on a hat. Not good. 

After a little more deliberation I decided to remove the ears and the patch and transfer them to a $2 baseball cap from Michael's. I felt a little bad cutting up the original, but this gives me something useful and wearable instead of just another purely decorative set of ears.

And you guys, LOOK HOW CUTE:

 Now THIS I can wear to the parks! It's a hundred times more comfortable than the original ears, and just as pretty!

The process of combining the two hats was a little trickier than I expected, so let me walk you through it and give you a few tips. 

You Will Need:

- pliers

- a pointy craft knife

- small metal snips

 - fabric glue

- scissors

- (4) 1/4 inch grommets (any color) & a grommet setting tool

(If you don't have a grommet setting kit, here's a $10 one on Amazon that will last you forever.)

1) First use your craft knife to cut around the two grommets holding each ear in place.

2) Slice the remaining ring of felt off, using a pair of pliers to help yank it out from under the grommets.

Use those same pliers to gently twist the grommet up, so it sits flush with the bottom of the ears.

3) Use your snips to cut the metal ring/washer off the inside of the grommet, and pull that off.

4) Use your pliers to crush the end of the grommet and slide it out of the ear. Be careful not to break the plastic around the holes, since we'll be re-using those soon!

Once all 4 grommets are gone, you'll have two pretty plastic ears, ready to transfer:

5) Have a friend wear the baseball cap (or put it on a Styrofoam head), and mark the ears' placement with a pen:

 

Use your craft knife to slice a TINY slit at each mark. Tiny.

6) Push your new grommet through that slit, put on the ear, and carefully hammer the grommet closed with your setting tool:

 These are the grommets and tool we used.

In case you've never done it: You line up the 2 pieces of the grommet, set the tool on top like this, and whack it with a hammer. Easy-peasy.

Repeat 'til you have both ears on:

You'll notice the ears flop back, but don't panic: they pop up again as soon as you put the hat on - which is actually really fun to watch, ha.

Finally, I was hoping we could peel off the embroidered patch with heat, but John and I both steamed and roasted the thing with a heat gun 'til the vinyl trim melted, and it wouldn't budge. Grr.

7) So instead I had to cut the patch off the hat, trimming as close to the edges as I could:

(This will vary from ear hat to ear hat, of course, since the decorations vary.)

I also shaved off as much of the felt as I could from the back, to reduce the thickness:

 I used a long craft blade to do the "shaving." It was messy and tedious (felt fibers EVERYWHERE), but I think worth the extra few minutes to get the patch a bit thinner.

8) Finally we used a generous amount of fabric glue to stick the patch to the new hat, and wrapped it tightly with blue tape while it cured:

All done!

Here come some beauty shots in the sun.

You can only see the new grommets from the back:

 

 I love that these ears have the stripes on both sides. It's just as cute from behind!

 The hat's a little small on John, but he's already threatening to steal it, he likes it so much:

I've intended from the start to make this a Squeegineer prize, though, so as tempted as I am to keep it (unnnng), this rainbowlicious beauty is going to one of YOU. It'll be in the prize stash for this month's winners to choose from.

Which reminds me, my two February winners are Amanda F. & Joanna F.! Congrats, you two, and look for an e-mail from John so you can pick your prizes. I added a few more non-jewelry prize options, too, so be sure to check those out.

Also I'm changing the rules a tiny bit for the Squeegineer give-away: everyone who gives through Paypal is still automatically entered, but starting this month e-mail entries will need one extra (but easy!) step:

  Just share any post from Epbot on any social media platform (FB, Twitter, IG, Pinterest, Twitch, etc.), then screenshot it to include with your e-mail entry. That's it! I know most of you already share the love online, so hopefully this is an easy change. If you have any questions, check out the Squeegineers page for all the details.

Now, go be someone's rainbow today. Love you guys. ::mwah::

******

And if you're looking for more crafts, check out my giant page of tutorials!