What Are The Crochet Child Hat Sizes?

As challenging as it may be to crochet a hat for your child, buying a crocheted hat can be worse. This is because there are a variety of children’s hat sizes, and if you’ve never purchased a hat for your sweet baby before, you’re going to make some mistakes. Of course, you could try the hat on at the store, but if you’d like to avoid the risk of lice, then you should measure your child’s heat instead.

In today’s guide, I’ll provide a crochet child hat size chart that you can use as a reference. I’ll also explain how you can get the measurements of your child’s head in order to find the best-fitting hat for their tiny noggins.

Crochet Child Hat Sizes

There are 7 crochet hat size categories for children, ranging from preemies to children over the age of 4 years old. The following table will help you determine which hat size to get based on the head circumference and crown diameter of the wearer.

Crochet Child Hat Size Chart

Understanding Crochet Hat Measurements

In the table above, you’ll find four measurements that will determine how well the crocheted hat will fit around your child’s head. Here, I’ll describe what they are, so you can better understand how to measure your child’s head for the perfect hat.

Hat Height—This refers to the measurement between the top of the hat to the bottom of the wearer’s earlobe. To get the right hat height, take the measurement from the top of the head to the earlobe and subtract 1 inch. If you want to add a folded brim to the hat, add 1 inch to the hat height. You can also make the hat’s height shorter—e.g., to the wearer’s eyebrow—if you don’t want to run the risk of the hat falling all the way down.

Hat Circumference—This refers to the brim of the hat, which wraps around the entirety of the wearer’s head. When measuring crocheted hats for children, you should subtract about 1.5 inches from the circumference of the wearer’s head to give the hat a snugger fit.

Head Circumference—This refers to the measurement of the wearer’s head along the forehead and the occipital bun (the tiny bump on the back of the head). You will need to know this measurement when buying a crocheted hat for your child.

Crown Diameter—This refers to the tip-top of the child’s head. Not all children’s heads have the same roundness, so you should find or make a crocheted hat that accommodates the roundedness or pointedness of their crown. The crown can also refer to the roundness of the top portion of the hat.

How to Measure Your Child’s Head for the Perfect Fit

Now that we have a basic understanding of what these hat measurements are, let’s move on to measuring your child’s head. To begin, you will need:

• A measuring tape or a piece of string/twine
• A maker/pen and a ruler

After gathering your supplies, we can begin the measuring procedure.

1. Take the measuring tape and measure the circumference of your child’s head. Place one end of the measuring tape directly on top of the occipital bun and run it across the child’s forehead and back to the starting position. Add or subtract 1.5 inches from the final measurement, depending on how snug you want the hat to fit.
2. Measure the height of the hat by taking the measuring tape and measuring the perpendicular distance between the child’s earlobe and the top of their head. Add or subtract 1 inch, depending on how tall you want the hat.
3. Finally, measure the child’s crown by taking the measuring tape and measure the distance from the tip-top of their head to the bottom of a noticeable bump. If your child’s head feels perfectly round, you can use the standard crown dimensions in the size chart above as a reference.
4. If you don’t have a measuring tape, you can use the piece of string/twine to get the measurements. You will need to use the marker or pen to color the section of the string where one end makes contact with a section of the string while measuring.

Additional Tips for Choosing the Perfect Crochet Child Hat

Not only do adult and child hat sizes differ, but there are also vast differences in the way they are made. Here are a few additional tips to help you find or make the right size hat for your child.

Negative Ease—This is a sizing term that sewers use to refer to a smaller final product than the actual recorded measurements. For instance, if the circumference of your child’s head is 18 inches, a hatmaker might create a brim or band that is 17 to 17.5 inches since they will use a stretchy material for children’s crocheted hats.

However, you might want to avoid using negative ease since children can grow up pretty quickly, and their heads can expand at a rapid rate over the span of a few months.

Slouchy—A slouchy hat is one where the crown of the hat will droop slightly to the back. The extra slouch is there for style, not to accommodate the growing head of your baby boy or girl. If you want to add a bit of slouch to the crocheted hat, simply add 1 to 2 inches when measuring the hat’s height.

Adding Ear Flaps—If you wish to make a winter hat for your child, you should consider adding ear flaps. You can refer to the sizing chart above to come up with the hat’s measurements for your child and subtract the height by 1 to 2 inches since the band doesn’t need to be folded.

You can learn more about the dimensions of some other hats here.

• What Are Cowboy Hat Sizes (with Size Chart)?
• Standard Graduation Cap Sizes and Guidelines (with Drawings)