A bobble hat seen from the front: a round bobble, a dome crown and a turned-up brim, all on one closed line. The brim is the part doing the work. It runs about seventeen units wider than the crown on each side, which is what keeps the shape from being read as a bell.
What makes it read as a hat
A circle on a dome on a band is not a hat on its own. It is also a bell, a mushroom and half the pieces on a chessboard. What settles it is the proportion: the crown is fifty units across and the brim is eighty-four, so the band at the bottom is obviously folded up rather than being the bottom edge of the hat.
The ends of the brim are true half circles rather than filed-off corners. A band with square ends reads as a plinth the shape is standing on, which is the other way an outline like this goes wrong.
The bobble crosses the crown where both curves are steep, so the two notches it makes open to about ninety degrees. That is wide enough to turn scissors in without stopping.
Two cut out and joined at the brim
Cut two hats at the same size and join them along the straight bottom edge of the brim, and you have something that stands on a shelf or a windowsill instead of lying flat. Glue along that edge only, or tape the brim ends, then open the halves out until it sits level.
At Medium the shape is about 112 by 115mm, close enough to square that a pair of them stands without wanting to tip forwards. One sheet gives you both pieces, which is the whole reason the page opens on two.
What it is actually good for
Peg and locker labels in January, when a stocking shape is out of season and a plain rectangle is dull. The crown is a broad empty area, so a name written across it stays readable at arm's length.
A display where every child decorates a hat, stripes and pompom and all, and the finished hats go up in rows. The outline is deliberately empty so that whatever a child puts on it is the only thing on it.
Small gives six at about 75 by 76mm, which is tag size and the setting to use when the hats are going on a string. Large gives one at roughly 151 by 155mm for a window or a door.
Questions
- What shape is the winter hat template?
- A bobble hat seen from the front: a round bobble on top, a dome crown and a wide turned-up brim, drawn as a single closed outline with nothing printed inside it.
- Can I make the hat stand up?
- Yes. Cut two at the same size and join them along the straight bottom edge of the brim, then open the two halves out until the hat sits level on a shelf.
- What sizes does it print at?
- One hat at about 151 by 155mm, two at roughly 112 by 115mm, or six at about 75 by 76mm. The shape is close to square, so the two measurements stay near each other.
- Is this the same hat the snowman wears?
- No. The snowman template wears a top hat, because a bobble hat on a silhouette that small gets read as the hat rather than as the snowman. This page is the bobble hat on its own.