Tutorial: Easy Visor Tutorial for Costumes

In this tutorial, I’ll be making a visor using EVA foam (or craft foam). But you can use the same idea to construct many different types of simple hats. This works best for hats that you can build off of a band around your head and may take some experimenting before you get to the final hat. I highly recommend making a mock-up of your hat first so that you can make sure the hat works as you expect it to.

How to make a custom EVA foam hat:

1. Measure the width of your head. If you will be wearing a wig with your hat, be sure to measure your head with the wig on since it can add an inch or two to the diameter.
2. Draw a long rectangle with your measurements. This will be the band of the hat that you build everything else off of. Tape your piece into a circle and make sure it fits around your head. If you want something like a top hat, this can be several inches tall, but in most cases, this will only be 1-2 inches tall.
3. Create your visor or brim. If your hat has a visor, lay your band down on a piece of paper and draw the shape of your visor. If your hat has a brim going all the way around, trace the circular shape of your band. Then measure an equal distance all the way around depending on how wide you want the brim to be. Most visors or brims will be 2-3 inches long.
4. Create the shape of the top of your hat. For simple hats, this part is easy. If you’re trying to make something a little more complicated, try looking at the panels of a real hat to see how they go together. For the visor, I only had to cut out the panel at the front of the hat, then play around with the height until I was happy with it.
5. Cut your pieces out in EVA foam (or craft foam). After you’re happy with the design, cut the pieces out of the foam.
6. Glue your pieces together. Just like in part one, glue your piece together with contact cement. Make sure to wait until the glue is tacky before attaching the pieces together.
7. Add velcro, elastic, or snaps. If you want to make the size of the hat adjustable, you can add velcro, elastic, or snaps to the back. Just be sure to adjust the size of the band before cutting it out of the EVA foam.