Chicken Hats

[igz00.livejournal.com]

So as kind of a weird family joke I'm making chicken hats for everyone for Christmas... or at least trying to...

Ideally, I'd like them to look similar to this:


I made myself a rough pattern last night, which came out pretty well, but I have a question about the details.


This is my Test Chicken:

(his head is too tall and his butt isn't wide enough)

As the heads in my family range from child-sized to giant-sized I need a good way to secure the hat to the head. My first thought is, of course, elastic, but I've never worked with elastic before and don't quite know what to do.

Should I make it a drawstring effect with a tie in the back?

Or stretch out the elastic around the perimeter of the head space so it gets that scrunch look all the time... and how do I do that?