Super Easy Braid Hats

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Have you seen those Braid Hats that everybody is pinning these days? I don’t know if people actually make all that stuff that they pin but… sometimes, it feel like a taunt that I don’t have the time to crochet one for my child! Are you interested in a Braided hat for your child or someone special? It doesn’t matter if you don’t crochet because using the trick below, you can add a braid to just about any hat!

I crochet but, I have no time to sit down and make a crochet hat from scratch for my toddler these days and it was driving me crazy and… jealous! So … I cheated. Our toddler, like most babies her age, has very short hair. She is a dark headed genius! Look what her mom made:

How To Make a Braid Out of Any Hat

Here is how you can make your own in just a few minutes. All you need is some chunky wool (blonde, brunette or a red head) of your choice, a crochet needle and a hat. Any hat, actually. Crochet, knit, cotton, a cowboy hat… whatever you have.  You can even use a beret.  (Please Note: For your convenience, the post below contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through them, we may make a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting this blog!)

You don’t have a hat? You can get some very cheap and stylish baby hatsfrom here.

I used ‘I was making something but it became a shower cap’ hat. I wanted to make it look like a Rupunzel hat so… here it is step by step.

Making The Strands:

You need to cut long strands of the yarn of equal length. You can cut as many as you like depending on how thick and how long you want your braid to be. When you measure, make sure the length is double the size you want because we will be doing two strands together. That means, if say you want your strand to be 20cm long then you will cut 40 cm long strand of yarn. Make as many strands as you need, all 40 cm long.

Once you have your strands ready, get a crochet needle. If you don’t have one, you can buy these needles here. The size of the needle depends on not the yarn here but your hat. For my Cow boy hat I wanted something smaller so we went with thinner steel needles but for my Rapunzel hat, I needed a thicker needle because we didn’t need to push through anything. There were already spaces for our needle. What I am saying is, if your hat requires you to insert into fabric then you need something pointed andmore needle-like that will pull the yarn through. If your hat is a knit or crochet one, then you can make do with any hook.

Follow the steps below to make your own hair for the hat:

Before you start, study the pictures before you read the steps. You can click the photo to enlarge it.

Step 1. Insert needle into the hat. For knits and crochet, you will need to insert from the right side towards the wrong side. For hats that have a band inside, you will need to insert needle from wrong side towards the right.
Step2. It will come out the other side and look like a loop.
Step3. Grab the yarn in the middle of the yarn (at 20cm if your strand was 40cm long).
Step4. Pull the strand out through.
Step5: Insert the needle again, without letting go of the strand of yarn.
Step6. Grab both the strands of yarn on the other end.
Step7. Pull both them through the already available loop of yarn on the hook (from step 2.)
Step8. Pull both the yarn strands through gently. Be careful, they may tangle!

Once the hair is done, you are ready to braid. I found it easier to braid with the hat on my knee:

Just separate them in to three strands and start braiding like you would braid your hair. Our Rapunzel hat had one braid. Go ahead and try out Frozen inspired hats too!

For hats that are not knit or crochet, you need to add ‘hair’ to the inside of the band under the hat. Depending on what type of hat you have and the band, you may have to insert the needle from the right side in or the wrong side in.

That is all! You have a braid. You can make a wig under a hat too. Get it on to your little one and ENJOY!

Need more patterns for Hats? Click here to check out rest of my crochet projects.

Need the tools and books to teach yourself to Crochet all by yourself? Click HERE.

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