We’re zooming into the wild blue yonder with this amazing aviator hat AND a pair of custom airplane wings and propeller belt. The sky is the limit!

We read Pilot Pups, written by Michelle Meadows, and illustrated by Dan Andreasen (Simon & Schuster, 2008). Join a pair of enthusiastic stuffed dogs as they fly through the house in a toy plane. Dodging mountaintops (Dad’s head), encountering fog (tea kettle), and careening past the creek (kitchen sink), and returning to the bed before anyone notices their daring adventures.

You’ll need:

• Brown packing paper
• Poster board
• 1 aviator hat goggle template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper
• 1 aviator hat buckle template, printed on 8.5″ x 11″ paper
• Hole punch
• Ribbon
• Stapler and scissors for construction
• Markers for decorating

It took a little tweaking, but I finally came up with a single piece aviator hat template that works. Here’s what the template looks like with its various dimensions:

And here’s an unmarked shot of it, so you can clearly see its shape:

First, fold the rounded part of the template upwards and inwards, so it tucks under the back of the template. Later, this will be the bill of your aviator hat.

Hold the template to your forehead and curve the long ends around your head. Secure the ends together with staples. This is the headband of your hat (and, if the template band doesn’t go all the way around your head, just add a little extender piece in the back).

Next, fold the right and left flaps over the top of your head. Secure them together with staples. Note: you want the flaps to form a bit of a “dome” over your head, not fit super tight on top of your skull.

Fold the the center flap down over the top of your head, gently tucking it into the back of the hat brim. Trim off any excess flap sticking out from under the brim.

Turn the hat over and squish and round the edges of the center flap to make the hat look more rounded. Decorate the goggles (yay steampunk story time!) and buckles from the template, then attach them to the hat like so:

That’s your hat, now for the rest of the costume! The wings are super simple. We cut pairs of 9.5″ x 16″ wings from white poster board, which the kids decorated with markers, color masking tape, and star stickers. Add poster board wrist and shoulder loops to the undersides of the wings. You can see the placement of the loops in the photo below (most kids chose to grasp the wrist loops in their fists while “flying”):

The propeller belt is a strip of poster board with holes punched in each end. Wrap the belt around your waist and secure it in place with a snippet of ribbon (decorate with markers and color masking tape of you like to) threaded through the belt holes. You can simply attach a poster board propeller to the front, or you can make it spin by using a brass fastener.

You’re ready to soar!