March Hare Hat Tutorial

An Easy DIY Solution to Complete your March Hare Costume

My vision of the March Hare is that of a bedraggled rabbit whose suit and hat are somewhat disheveled and tired.  For his costume, I chose a dark green, velvet suit with a brown button up shirt, yellow tie, and topped it all off with a bowler hat with floppy ears attached.  As per usual, I chose a hat that I had on hand, one that had in fact seen better days, a perfect choice for this character.  Here’s how the March Hare hat all came together…

Supplies: 

• Bowler hat
• Fur Coat Remnant (old one I had on hand, but a well used one from Goodwill or the like works)
• 1/2″ wide Yellow ribbon (or color of preference)
• Scissors
• Wire Cutters
• Wire Hanger
• Hot Glue
• Needle
• Thread

Step 1: Ribbon Border

I cut a length of ribbon just slightly longer than the diameter of the base of the hat, so that it could overlap.  Then I secured it into place at the base of the hat with a couple of dabs of hot glue.

Step 2: Floppy Ears

I wanted the ears to stand up as well as to be floppy. First, I cut the corners off both sides of the hanger (one shorter than the other since I wanted one ear to stand a bit higher).  Then I cut both the lining and fur into tall triangular ear shapes, 6″-8″ tall by 3″ wide on bottom, narrowing to about 1 1/2″ wide on top.  I placed them wrong sides together, whip-stitched them, and turned them right-side out. I inserted the hanger corners and secured them inside with a dab of hot glue on the ends, which also helped to protect against the hanger’s sharp edges.  I also sealed the ears shut with a line of hot glue. I wanted the ears to stick up from behind the head, so I hot glued them into place near the back of each side of the hat as close to the rim as possible.  The fur disguised the bottom of the ears, so there was really no need to do anything more than hot glue it in place.

The Result: A Cute, Simple Rabbit Hat with Floppy Ears.

Oh, and FYI, this hat came in handy when I did a production of Peter Pan; I had one of the lost boys wear it with a fur vest.  After two productions, complete with rehearsals, I’ve only had to reapply hot glue once after the second production.  I could possibly have used some E-6000 to ensure a more permanent adhesion, but all in all, I’m quite pleased.  On more than one occasion, people have asked to borrow the hats from my Alice in Wonderland series, and who can blame them!  They’re super cute!

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