Supermario toad hats

 So I am making Toadette and Toadbert for me and my husband, from Supermario.

This weekend our cosplay group had a build weekend, meaning the whole Saturday and Sunday could be dedicated to making stuff, and I decided to start with our hats.

The pattern for the hat was developed from a paper patern for making sphere in six parts. I had previously started with making paper versions to see if I could get the shape that I wanted.

This was me trying to get the proportions right from the paper pattern.

This was the shape that I felt happy with in the smal scale. That V-cut out was very important to shape the top and bottom part of the "donut".

After this it was time scale up the pattern, and I did that in cardboard.

Here are the steps in scaling up the pattern, with the pattern getting bigger and bigger. Then it was time to work with foam. I used 5 mm EVA foam to craft the hats. I started with the hat for my husband, and it was definitely a learning curve. For him I made the V cutouts fairly short and wide and it was hard for me to close them.  For my own hat I made the V cutouts longer and thinner. It was much easier, but I felt that I lost some of the shape that I wanted to have.

This was the final results, but I was not happy with them. They feel too much like hats, or squashed donuts, not the tall rounded shape. It is hard to work with proportions for such a non-proportional character like a Supermario toad, but I defintitely felt that I wouldn't be happy with this. 

So for now I have cut the hats in half in the middle, and my plan is to insert a strip of foam there to make them taller. I am out of foam though so I will have to wait until I can buy more before I continue. I am also a bit worried about the hats staying on. They will catch a lot of wind in this size, and even they feel good when we are standing, i amthinkint that we need to be able to attach them to our heads more securely, but not using a strap under the chin or something like that.

The plan after that is to cover them in felt/soft foam before covering them in fabric to get the finished result.