DIY Conical Hats for Fashionable Princesses

Learn to craft colorful, fancy cone shaped hats for each of your fashion dolls.
Trim them with silks, ribbons, embroidery etc...

The conical hats are called hennin;
 read more about them at Wikipedia.
Above, Hans Memling's painting of
a young woman with a black velvet
lappets and a conical shaped hat.

       The headdress in the shape of a cone or "steeple", or truncated cone were worn in the late Middle Ages by European princesses and women of the nobility. Various writers on costume history use hennin to cover a variety of different styles. Almost all agree that the steeple-cone style was the original hennin. You can make these theatrical looking princess hats for all of your Barbie dolls!

Supply List:

• cardboard
• masking tape
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• needle and matching threads
• silk scraps, scarfs, transparent fabric scraps
• ribbons to match
• cotton balls
• tacky craft glue 
• one large paper clip
• decorative thin silk ribbons (8 inches per hat)

 Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Download and print out my pattern below. Cut the pattern out.
2. Trace around the hat pattern onto a stiff piece of cardboard and cut this out.
3. Roll and shape the cardboard into a pointed cone and glue it with the tacky craft glue
4. Use a paper clip to hold the cone together while it dries.
5. Cover the entire cone with masking tape. This will hold the steeple shaped hat into place should it get wet during play.
6. Stuff the inside tip of the cone with a cotton ball to help the cardboard keep it's peeked shape.
7. Cut a piece of silk fabric slightly larger than the pattern provided, approximately 1/4 inch around.
8. Roll this around the cone with it's right side facing the cone. Pin the edges together.
9. Sew a straight seam up the side of the fabric to a point.
10. Remove the silk cover and turn it inside out so that the straight seam is now on the inside of the fabric cover. 
11. Now insert the cardboard form and hot glue the lower edge of the fabric to the inside of the cone neatly all the way around the edge of the hennin.
12. Cut two squares of veil fabric to attach to the top of the hennin with a needle and thread. These square may be as long as you like. 
13. Pull the threaded needle through the centers of each square to neatly layer these together while attaching them to the tip top of each covered hennin.
14. Hot glue a ribbon on each side of the conical hat so that you can tie it onto the doll's head securely. The ribbon should measure approximately four inches in length on each side of the doll's head.

Barbie wears a gold lamé hennin with a sparkly star veil to compliment her pale pink dress trimmed with gold and white accents.

Each of our fashion dolls have hennins to match their princess gowns.
There are three versions photographed here in hot pink, purple and gold lamé.

This lovely princess wears a steeple headdress trimmed with embroidery.

Above is a free pattern for the body of the hennin.
 Measurements for the veil are included in the instructions above.