DIY Sorting Hat (best out of waste)

This article will show you how to make a DIY Sorting Hat -like the one used in the Harry Potter books and films- out of papier-mâché.

It cannot be worn as such -unless you make sure it’s big enough to fit onto the head. And still it would be slightly uncomfortable, I think. It can, however, be used as a prop for a Harry Potter birthday party or as the actual sorting hat, if you (like we did) want to divide the kids into their Hogwarts Houses upon arrival. As we mentioned in the Harry Potter Invitation, the sorting commenced shortly upon arrival and this sorting hat was the perfect prop for that 🙂

And yes, we made two. My oldest daughter wanted to make one alone, so my youngest daughter and me shared one hat as a joined project.

Getting the ingredients ready for your DIY Sorting Hat

To make the sticky homemade glue, use white flour (maida) and water. You will need 2 parts flour to 3 parts water. So 200ml flour to 300ml water or 2 cups flour to 3 cups water. Use whatever measuring cup you have handy. Mix the flour and water in a big basin with a whisk until there are no more lumps.

We used 600ml flour for two hats but it all depends how much glue is on each newspaper strip. So it’s difficult to give exact measurements and maybe better to make it a few times during the project. This papier-mâché project needs only one layer of newspapers -unlike a piñata-, so you just need to shape the hat. And then add the mouth, eyes and wrinkles to make it look old. You can also use fevicol glue with a little water (about 5 glue to 1 water) to make this if you don’t have any flour available.

Newspapers work best for this project but magazines will work too if you don’t have any newspapers. Tear the newspaper into thin strips approximately 1inch/2.5cm wide.

To shape the hat, blow up a balloon with a crunched up toilet paper roll on top (to give the hat some height). Cut an old craft paper into a circle for the base/brim of the hat (approximate diameter 35cm). The balloon and paper can be any colour. It’s a coincidence that they are both purple in our case.

See the full step-by-step guide with pictures at the end of the article.

Tips for making a DIY Sorting Hat with your kids:

1. Prepare for some mess -all depending on your kids and how much they move around the table. The flour/water mixture is literally like glue and as you dip the newspaper strip into the flour/water mixture, it sometimes flops around a bit and leaves drops here and there. I even found the “glue” on the ceiling lamp afterwards.
2. Don’t panic if the mess is bigger than anticipated. The flour/water mixture is not as permanent as actual glue, so it is possible to clean everything off afterwards. Use a wet cloth and/or a bench scraper/spatula depending on the surface.
3. Cover the entire surface with newspapers or an old craft cloth. The table is generally really hard to clean afterwards, so newspapers or anything disposable is definitely preferred to make the clean-up easier for you.
4. Everyone should wear old clothes -even the parent. You really never know where the glue might end up and it’s better safe than sorry.
5. Kids usually know what they want to do, and -maybe more importantly- what not. Some might not like getting their hands all dirty in the sticky goo while others love the feeling of it between their fingers. My kids each have their own preferences and I try to respect that.

Finishing the sorting hat

We needed to use the sorting hat as an actual sorting hat for our Harry Potter party. So we needed the inside of the hat to be neat too.

We cut a circle out of the bottom craft paper (see step 8 below) and pushed a take away container into the space. We filled it with Hogwarts House stickers so the kids got to “draw” their house. If you need it for something too, you can either place a take away container in the hole (as we did) or you can make it neat with papier-mâché. I chose the easiest solution. 🙂

Let the sorting hat dry for min. 24 hours before painting it. We used a mixture of brown and black paint to get it really dark brown. We had those colours available and I always believe in using what we have for these best out of waste projects. Any brown acrylic paint will do the trick of course. I painted the hat with a little gold paint afterwards. I used a sponge to give it some shine and make it look worn and old.

Check out my other paper-mache projects:

• Flower Piñata
• Tamatoa the Crab (from Moana)

Hope you have fun with this project -like we did. See the easy to follow step-by-step guide below.