Mini Yarn Hat Christmas Ornaments

Adorable and inexpensive Mini Yarn Hat Christmas Ornaments are a great DIY holiday craft for the whole family.

I’ve wanted to make these adorable Mini Yarn Hat Christmas Ornaments for ages. I remember spotting them in an old magazine and thinking they were just the sweetest little things. They are incredibly easy to make and remind me of the toques we wore growing up in Canadian winters.

These Mini Yarn Hats make super cute present toppers…

… look great on the Christmas tree…

…and according to my little girls, are the perfect winter attire for stuffed toys too, ha! The first few I made were immediately swiped up for playing with and I can’t blame them.

You can make these Mini Yarn Hats in a variety of colours and textures, using whatever yarn you can find. I was able to make all these with leftover yarn I had from other projects and the secret to the hat cuff is something I guarantee you’ll have on hand to reuse – paper towel and toilet paper roll.

When I started hanging these on our tree, I realized they went really well with this knit sweater ornament we were given once and these tiny felt mitten ornaments I made years ago, inspired by ones my great grandmother made. You could make a whole bunch of mitts and hats for a “winter wonderland” themed tree or garland!

Picking Yarn for Mini Yarn Hat Ornaments

You can use any kind of yarn that you have, but when trying these three different thicknesses, I noticed a few things:

Thin Wool (green) – I found this at the dollar store and loved the dark green colour. The thinner the yarn, the more you’ll need to cut for each hat.

Thick Wool with Gold Threads (cream) – This was by far my favourite yarn to work with for this craft. The threads are twisted in such a way that it looks more “knit” and the gold strands add a little festive flair. This one was also the easiest to fluff up into a pom pom at the top. I found this one at Michaels for another craft a few years ago.

Thick Fluffy Wool (burgundy) – I already had this yarn leftover in my craft bins from way back when I made the Anthropologie-Inspired Tufted Wool Wreath. This was the fluffiest, curliest yarn but it was also the hardest to work with. While I love the colour, I do find it didn’t make the clearest “hat” shape, so I’d be less inclined to use this style of wool again.

However, I did like to use the fluffy burgundy mixed with the smoother cream yarn to make a fun candy cane striped hat. Mixing up the wools for different colour combinations is a great way to get creative with this holiday craft!

How to Make a Mini Yarn Hat Christmas Ornament

Are you ready to make your own Mini Yarn Hats? This is a fun inexpensive ornament, using a combination of recycling materials and easy to find craft supplies.

What you’ll need:

• yarn
• paper towel roll or toilet paper roll
• scissors
• cotton balls

Start by cutting the paper towel or toilet paper rolls into the size of the cuff you’d like on the hat. With a toilet paper roll, you should be able to get 5 pieces that are about 1″ in height. To cut the roll, I folded it just enough to cut with scissors and then bent each ring back into shape.

To make it easier to cut the yarn into pieces, you can wrap it around a hardcover book before cutting. The pieces of yarn should be about 10″ in length, so look for a book about that size.

Wrap the yarn around the book 10-20 times (depending on the yarn thickness), then carefully cut the yarn along the centre spot at the top of the book with scissors. Repeat on the other side. If you need more pieces of yarn later, you can easily do more.

Grab the centre of a piece of yarn and pull the loop through the ring, leaving the ends on the other side.

Grab the ends and pull them through the loop.

Pull until the knot is tight and you have a snug fit on the ring.

Continue with the yarn pieces, going around the entire ring until it’s covered. If you run out of pieces, just cut some more using the book method shown above.

You’ll have a pretty funky hairdo on your ring by now.

Push the ends through the inside of the ring to the other side. Use your fingers to gently push all the knots into the inside of the ring as well.

Now there is a hat cuff and all the yarn ends are sticking out the top.

Gather the ends and tie them tight with a piece of yarn, about halfway to the ends.

Using sharp scissors, give the yarn ends a trim to shape it into a pom pom. You can use your fingers to gently unravel the ends of the yarn to create a fluffier pom pom.

To give your hat more structure and get the nice puffy hat shape, stuff a cotton ball inside the hat.

You can hardly see the cotton ball in there, but if you want to cover it up, you could glue in a small circle of felt in a similar colour.

And there you have a cute Mini Yarn Hat Christmas Ornament!

Keep going, making more hats to add as ornaments, decorate presents or string into a cute garland.

Have fun with different colours, sizes and yarn thicknesses. If you make these, tag me on Instagram or Facebook @lifeatcloverhill. I’d love to see them!

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