practical handbook of bee culture

This hat is a modified version of the Old Scholar hat found in the book "The Art of Chinese Paper Folding for Young and Old" by Maying Soong. It is available on the Internet Archive, and if my instructions are unclear at any point, I recommend referencing the original instructions on page 50, and maybe even doing a test run with those instructions first to better understand what I'm doing here. However, also feel completely free to comment or message me about any questions you have.

You will need a square piece of paper. I used a post-it note for my photos, which as you can see fit my Smiski quite well, but the original instructions recommend a 20 inch piece of paper to fit a small head. Consider the flexibility of your materials and how loose you want it.

Step 1

Fold and crease your paper in half both diagonally and lengthwise. Then, fold along your lengthwise creases, pushing in along two opposite diagonal folds. This should flatten into a smaller square.

Step 2

Fold only the upper layer of paper upwards, not quite meeting the corners and leaving a small border of space.

Step 3

Fold the upper layer along the middle of the shape, creating a lip. Fold this lip under and inside the shape to hide it.

Step 4

Fold the uppermost layer of paper downwards. Fold the lower corner of the layer up, about a third of its length. Fold the layer back upwards.

Step 5

Flip over your paper and repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 on the other side. This will create the side flaps of the hat.

Step 6

Fold the top layer in half lengthwise, bringing the right and left corners together, and repeat on the other side as well. The two sides we have not folded yet should now be visible.

Step 7

Fold the uppermost layers of paper on either side up and in half.

Step 8

Crease the top corner of the upper layer down to meet the bottom (at the fold made in Step 7). Unfold, and fold again to bring the top corner to the crease we just made. Fold again at our initial crease.

Step 9

Fold the upper layer of paper to create a fold between the corner and the middle. Make a small fold to bring down the top corner of the upper layer of paper, about meeting the visible lip from Step 8.

Step 10

Fold the upper layer down. Bring the corners on either side to meet in the middle and crease them in half.

Step 11

Unfold and bring the corners to meet the crease we just made. Then, fold along the crease again. Fold the bottom of our top layer back up along our horizontal fold.

Step 12

Flip your paper over. Repeat steps 8, 9, 10, and 11 on the other side. You have now made your brims.

Step 13

Open your hat up from the bottom. Congratulations! You have made an origami deerstalker!