DIY: Bridal Shower Sun Hat

Want to look fabulous at your beach-themed bridal shower? Then look no further! In today’s blog, Crafter Ali will share with you step-by-step instructions so that you can create and customize your own sun hat. Aside from being a super stylish summertime accessory, this sun hat is perfect for a Boatie or coastal bridal shower when you’ll be sitting in the sun for hours, or all bridal shower venues! Here’s how to make your own.

Supplies Needed:

• Cutting machine (Ali used a Cricut Maker)
• Heat Transfer Vinyl (HTV)
• Heat press or iron 
• A sun hat (Ali got hers from Target)
• A Fancy Font!

Ali recently joined the Cricut world for help with crafts she wanted to make for her wedding. She’s studied countless hours of YouTube videos and perused Facebook groups for inspiration. This particular sun hat was inspired by a video from DIY Alex.

Let’s get started!

Sizing is extremely important here, so in order to get the sizing correct, you’ll want to recreate the shape of your sun hat in Design Space.  To do this, flip your hat over, and measure the full length of the hat. Hers is 18.5 inches.  

Next, go into Design Space, add a circle shape & change the sizing to the size you measured your hat to be. In this case, 18.5 inches. Good size for big floppy hats!

Now you’ll need to measure the inside of your hat & then create another circle in DS. So again, flip your hat over and this time measure the inside circle (where your head goes).  The inside lining of her hat is 7.5 inches in circumference. So another circle was added and sized to 7.5 inches.

Now that you have both circles, you’ll want to make sure they are different colors.  Then select both of them, go to where it says ‘align’, and click ‘align center’.

This will scale your sun hat to your sizing in DS.  Again, click ‘select all’ and choose ‘group’ so the shapes will stay grouped together.

Now that you have your sun hat design to scale, you’re ready to add your text.  Ali is the first to admit she’s a touch picky when it comes to fonts and she sometimes likes to mix and match. 

We encourage it!

First, you’ll want to select your font. You can choose a similar font to the one used in this tutorial from our Font library.

Next she has selected Text, and inserted what she wants on her hat: bride to be

You’ll notice that when you type in DS, the letters are not connected.  Normally we could ungroup these; but if you ungroup to connect the letters and then attach them, you will no longer have access to the curve feature.  

For the next step, you may need to play around with this in order to get it perfectly aligned.  The sizing and curve will depend on your chosen font, placement and size of your hat and text.

First, Ali changed the letter spacing to -.5 to bring the letters closer together.

Next, she went ahead and added a negative curve to the text. You’ll notice that this has also disconnected the letters again. She has also made the text just a little larger to where it is slightly off the hat shape. This isn’t a premature bridal meltdown, it’s all for a reason!

In this next step we are going to ungroup the text and manually connect the letters to get it juuuuust right.  (We’ve calmed down again) 

After you’ve ungrouped your letters, each letter will appear in your layers panel. 

Now you can manually move each letter closer and connect them. They’ll maintain their angle of rotation to the brim of your sun hat.

If you are happy with the font the way it is, you can select all the letters and hit attach.  But since Ali likes to mix and match her fonts, she decides to go back to Text, and choose the font Autumn in November, and add a “t”.

She simply sizes and curves the new “t” to match the old one, and then replaces and deletes the original “t”.

Before you attach and place the wording onto your hat, there is one more edit that Ali did. If you like the wording as is, you can skip this, but she chose to replace the dot on her “i” with a diamond.  

In order to do this, you first need to remove the dot over the “i”.  Simply add a small circle shape, cover the dot, select the “i” & circle and slice.

After slicing, click on the circle and the dot & delete it.

Now you can add your diamond (or any other shape you choose)!  Go to images and search #MD086627. And then click insert. Bring the diamond down to the top of the “i”, rotate & resize it to your liking.

Now select each word and click attach.

Note you’ll want to select attach instead of weld in case you need to disconnect the letters.  Keep in mind the Weld cannot be undone!

Okay, now you should have 3 words attached & two circles grouped when you look at your layers panel.

Now it is time to move the wording up to your hat. This is why she likes to keep the words separately, so you can move them around if needed. You might even need to tweak the sizing or rotate the words a bit again.

Once you are happy with it, you can select all 3 words, and click weld. Remember, once you weld, it cannot be undone. 

Now you’re ready to cut!

Select the shapes you grouped to make your hat and hide them (select the eye icon) so they won’t go to your cut mat.

Next, click Make It.  

Be sure to mirror your image when working with HTV!

When cutting, you’ll want to follow the cut settings of the material you’re working with.  In this tutorial, Ali is using Siser Easyweed. You can find a guide to cut and heat settings here.

Once your lettering is cut, weed the excess and then lay the design on top of your hat.  Ali finds it helpful to use a heat transfer tape to help hold down the design. She uses this one from Amazon and she uses parchment paper (found at the grocery store) to protect her heat press.

Now for the final step: Go find a beach to show off your work! 🌞