Harley Quinn Hat DIY

Those of you who know me, know that I am a life-long Batman fan. My nickname has been Joker since I was a small child for various reasons that have nothing to do with me being insane. LOL Really, it's my sense of humor and love of purple and green ... and possibly my creepy laugh.

Anyway, for a few years now I've wanted to do a great Harley Quinn costume. Much of what I could find online was very generic, like bodysuits that do not look good on most people. Or people put together their own outfits and didn't give instructions as to how they managed this. Some did and those were helpful, but I didn't find many. While I continue to perfect my own costume I realized that the next accessory I needed was a great hat.

So, I started looking for Harley Hats. Do you know that as far as I can find, no one manufactures them? I thought that was weird. I found a few (overpriced) on Ebay and thought, "I could do this myself."

I started looking for patterns and found that no one was willing to share a pattern for a Harley hat. BUT, I did find a few blogs talking about how to make a jester hat. I modified that a little and made my own hat.

It turned out so well, I decided to make one for my dog Roscoe too. LOL A good little minion should always match his evil mistress.

First, here's what you'll need. 

Red and black fabric. You can use something soft like fleece or something that will stand up better. It depends on if you want your hat to be floppy or stiff. Ha. Ha. It's up to you. My hat is made out of a stiffer wool. Yeah, I know that's not the technical name, but I can't think of it. I got a half yard of each color because I plan to make a pillow eventually too. You should have plenty left over.

Pom poms or jingle bells. You can get these at most craft stores or even at Walmart. I chose to use pom poms because I didn't want to jingle all the time.

Sewing machine is optional. It would be easier if you have one. I don't. It took me 6 hours to stitch my hat by hand and about an hour to do Roscoe's. The only reason it took me so long on my hat is because I had no idea what I was doing.

Black and red thread.

Okay, first you need to make your pattern. This is really easy. Measure around your head just above the eyebrows. My measurements was 56 cm. But, I wanted the hat to be loose, so I used 58 cm. as my measurement.

My hat is 52 cm. up the long/pointy side and 30 cm. down the short side. If you shorten the short side or lengthen the long side, you will get more of an extreme point. Likewise if you don't want your hat to be as "pointy" (Ha. Ha.) then you can shorten both of these measurements.

So, here is what I figured. 58 cm (circumference of my head) divided by 4 (because you need 4 panels). That equals 14.5 cm. That means that the base of my pattern needs to be 14.5 cm.

I measured this out on some "Happy Birthday" tissue paper and cut out my pattern.

Next, you need to cut 4 pieces of material using the pattern as your guide. You can either pin it to the fabric, or use a pen to trace it lightly. This will not show on the final product because your seam will be about 1 cm.

You need 2 black and 2 red. Make sure their slant all faces the same direction. (Wow. That sounds vaguely obscene.)

Take a black and a red piece and put their short sides together. Fold them in half and sew them together, but don't sew the "points." I hope that makes sense. I'm trying to be as clear as I can, but I'm no seamstress. 

Once you've done this, open them out and finger press the seam open. Repeat this for the other pair. 

Place the two pairs "right" sides together. This means the hat will look like it's inside out. Sorry if I over explain, but I need things simple. Now, you might find it easier to pin the hat together while you stitch. That's what I did. With the "right" sides together, start stitching sides (outside edges) together. Be sure to have a red side facing a black side so that the hat turns out with the correct "Harley" look. You may need to trim off excess fabric at the tips when you stitch them. Mine weren't perfectly matched. LOL The pic just above this paragraph shows the hat after both sides have been stitched together, but before I turned it right side out.

Next, lay your hat flat (still wrong side out) and trim off about 10-15 cm from the bottom, depending on how wide you want your brim.

Slide this band/brim over the bottom of the hat, aligning the cut edges. The wrong side of the hat (seams out) should be facing the right side of the brand/brim. Make sure your colors alternate. Now that all the seams match up at the bottom, stitch.

Turn the hat right side out. I used a pen to poke out the points of the hat as much as possible. Now, flip the brim up to the right side and tuck the very top (rough edge) under about 1 cm or more if you want a thinner brim. Pin it in place, matching the seams and stitch the top near the folded edge. 

All that's left to do is sew some pom poms or jingle bells to the tips and start getting your freak on with The Joker. HAHAHA!!

For Roscoe's hat, I measured his head and his ears and basically followed the same steps. I just used smaller pom poms and put straps on the sides, alternating colors. This pic gives a side angle of his little "points." They are custom fitted to his little ears, but because I was laughing, trying to hold a little dog, and take this pic at the same time, his ears slipped out. LOL

Have fun!

Should you self-publish AND do your own cover art?

As some of you might know, I've been practicing "un-plugging." That's where (in my case) you check your email and then don't go near the computer for the rest of the day. It's been wonderful.

However, today I browsed a forum online that was discussing the pros and cons of a few topics I feel do not have a clear answer. What I mean is, the answer is different for everyone.

The first topic I stumbled across was more of a listing of cons than a discussion. It was someone stating how an author should NEVER do their own cover art. Their reasoning was that an author didn't know the proper size for the image and didn't know how to blend backgrounds. They also said that authors would only use standard fonts that came with the software they were using and that these fonts were boring.

Although I understand their point (there are lots of examples of this on Amazon) I disagree that you should always hire a cover artist. There are many authors out there who do an amazing job on their own cover art. Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow are two that come to mind. Just because you write doesn't mean you don't have other talents.

I don't think I've done too badly on the covers for my self-pub titles either. I created the look I wanted and that as a reader would attract my attention. That can't be all bad. I also didn't use "standard" font. I found something that I believed conveyed the mood of the story. I took everything into consideration. The initial cover image, the background, the colors, fonts, placement of fonts, how it would look in a thumbnail on Amazon, as well as how it would look on the front of a print copy.

In this same forum someone also said that they thought it was expensive to hire a cover artist. Someone else replied (snidely I thought) that, "If you think $50-100 is expensive, then yes." Um, it isn't cheap. If you've been affected by this economy the way many have and need to carefully plan your budget, you don't have $50-100 to just throw around. I'll admit I don't. Now that is a very rough estimate. Some artists will do covers for less and some charge more. I also respect the fact that they need to make a living as well. I'm simply saying that from my point of view, it is an expense that doesn't make sense.

I also respect the fact that not everyone is comfortable or has the desire to do their own cover art. However, if you CAN do it and do it well, then I say go for it.

Another hot topic I stumbled across in these forums was the old argument of self-published vs. traditional. This decision is personal to each individual and depends on lots of factors. Many argue the point that if you use a traditional publisher, you don't have to do all the marketing yourself. Um, wrong. While publishers will do some small amount of advertising, they generally advertise their company and not individual authors. I don't blame them. Who could afford to advertise for EVERY author in a big house? For the cover of your book to even be included in a big ad, you generally need to be established with the house and your books need to be selling pretty well.

I'm not knocking publishers for this at all. It makes good business sense. I'm just pointing out that the idea of, "I'll get a contract and then someone else will do the rest of the work," is way off base.

Regardless of whether you self or traditionally publish, there is marketing to be done. Lots and lots of it. It can be overwhelming and even depressing at times. Then again, there are some publishers who will put your book up for sale and never advertise it at all. It just sits there looking pretty on their site. In these cases, uploading it to Amazon and letting it just sit THERE looking pretty might get your title more visibility based on location alone. It's a lot to consider.

Another point made was that everyone needs an editor. I agree. No one is perfect. I'm a better writer because of the editors I've worked with and I'm grateful for that. That is why I continue to traditionally publish as well as dipping my toes into self-pub. For my self-published titles, I have someone who helps me edit. I'm lucky to know someone who is so good at this. I also use test readers from time to time to check everything about the story I can think of that needs to be checked.

In this same forum (which I don't plan to read any more LOL) someone was expressing their opinion about the importance of reviews. They believed that people religiously checked book reviews just as they do movie reviews before purchase and that reviews were therefore VERY important.

While I understand their point and see where it is entirely reasonable for someone to have this opinion, I disagree. I never read movie reviews unless I've already seen the film, hated it, and want to see if others agree. Ha. Ha. Sad, but true. Movie reviews, just like most film trailers these days, ruin the plot for me. I do not appreciate spoilers.

Now, back to the subject of books. I agree that an honest review is a very nice thing to take into consideration before a purchase. However, those are getting harder and harder to find. As I've often shared my opinions on this topic here, I'm not going to get into a rant. I promise. Many sites that allow for reviews to be posted will let people say anything. Reviews have become the place for the author to be bashed, not the book. Rather than sharing honest points they liked or disliked and the reasoning behind it, many "reviewers" just sling insults and bad language. They seem to be of the opinion that being rude means they're being honest. No, it just means they are an ass with no consideration for others and no respect for themselves.

Now, I'm reeling in that rant like I promised. My point is, I don't put a lot of faith in reviews in general. That's not to say that there aren't some REVIEWERS whose opinions I trust and value. THAT is a different matter entirely. I'm talking about the general subject of reviews.

It's too easy for people who haven't even read a book to go online and trash it and the author. Likewise, it's just as easy for someone to get their friends to write 5 star reviews.

Thanks to the advice of a fellow author, I've stopped reading reviews unless someone emails me a link. You wouldn't believe how much my stress levels have dropped when I stopped obsessing over every little thing other people say. Sure, public opinion is important. I don't mean to dismiss that. Readers send me positive letters all the time to let me know I'm on track. I listen to THEM. I write for THEM. Know what I mean?

The decision to self-publish or not isn't an easy one. It's also not easy to decide what to do about cover art. Here are my closing thoughts on both topics. Hopefully, they will be of some help.

If you are computer savy, formatting an ebook (or print book) isn't that difficult.

Photoshop is pretty user friendly. There are many videos on youtube that can teach you the basics.

Just because you have a contract with a publisher, doesn't mean your part of the deal is finished. There is still work to do regardless of which route you choose.

With self-publishing you get a larger percentage of your profits.

With self-publishing you have complete creative control. Don't let it go to your head. This makes it easier to tell the story you want to tell. However, it also makes it easier to publish crap.

Here are examples of cover art I've done myself. I'm proud of them. :)




As always, I hope some of this is helpful to you in your publishing adventures. :)