Free 3D top hat SVG files

How the hat goes together

The crown is a strip with a row of teeth along each long edge and a glue tab on one end. Roll it into a tube and glue the tab inside. Slip the brim ring over the foot of the crown while the foot teeth still hang straight, then fold those teeth outwards under the brim and glue the brim down on them. Last, fold the top teeth inwards and glue the top disc on to them. On the plain hats the top disc is not drawn separately: it is the disc that falls out of the middle of the brim. That disc is two thirds of a millimetre wider than the rolled crown, so the same cut gives a top that covers the tube and a hole that slides over it.

The flared hats work the same way, but a crown that widens is a cone, and a cone laid flat is a slice of a ring. Its short edge goes once round the foot of the crown, where the brim sits, and its long edge once round the top. A straight band will not lie flat on a cone, so those hats have a curved band cut from the same cone, half a millimetre further out to allow for the card.

Sizes and card

The files are 100 mm on their longer side, so scale them up before cutting. The classic hat, cut 200 mm wide, is 60 mm across the crown, 58 mm tall and 100 mm across the brim, and its sheet is 200 by 200 mm, which fits A4 or Letter card. To change the size, scale the whole file: the strip, the discs and the teeth all grow together and still fit. The minis are 37 mm across the crown when their sheet is cut 170 mm tall; their teeth are then about 10 mm wide, so do not go much smaller.

Card of 200 to 250 gsm rolls into a smooth tube and holds its shape. Run the strip over the edge of a table before gluing so it curls without creasing. Fold lines are cut as short slits, so there is nothing to score. Tacky glue grips the teeth quickly; hold each seam for a few seconds. Every size here is worked out from the drawing, not from a test cut, so try one in plain paper before you use good card.

How to open the files

• Cricut Design Space: choose Upload, pick the SVG, and add it to the canvas. Set the width you want; the shape is already welded.
• Silhouette Studio: Designer Edition and above open the SVG. The free Basic Edition does not, so open the DXF instead.
• LightBurn, xTool Creative Space and Glowforge: import the SVG, then set the layer to cut, score or engrave.
• Inkscape, Illustrator and Affinity: open the SVG. It is a plain filled path, so you can recolour it, add a stroke or combine it with your own work.
• Printing or sublimation: use the PNG, which has a transparent background.

Each design page lists the file’s narrowest part at seven sizes, so you can tell whether it will survive at the size you plan to cut.

Questions