Chicken Grad Cap

In 2023, Scripps College made the mistake of allowing us to customize our graduation caps. Where previous years had caps that were more solidly constructed and possibly reusable, our squares of cardboard loosely attached to fabric by a mysterious, failing glue were ripe for experimentation. I knew immediately that I wanted to put some sort of chicken on top of mine, so the big issue was getting the top button off.

My friend Julienne is an engineer and general craft wizard, so together we tore apart the Harvey Mudd makerspace trying to get that awful button off. Eventually a small wood saw worked to cut a big enough hole through the bottom of the cap to pull the button through, leaving a clear, even workspace on top.

Of course in removing the button I had pulled the fabric covering the board in a million different directions, and the glue holding it on in the first place wasn’t that good, so I went back and sewed up each of the four corners. In some of my grad pictures you can see the outline of this stitching on the underside of the cap.

To create the chicken design, I cut out a chicken shape in felt and then sewed it together and down onto the cap with embroidery floss, so that the stitches were visible. I highly recommend this method–it’s durable and has a homemade look.

The worst part of the process was slicing a little slit in the side of the chicken to poke the button through, and then trying to glue the button on so that it could hold the tassel. To others customizing grad caps: heed my advice! Just leave the button in place and then make a design around that! Your chicken will still be cool even if it’s built around a button.