Over the years, slouchy hats have become one of my favorite projects to crochet. They are fun to wear, gift, donate, and sell! I prefer to crochet my slouchy hats from the bottom-up, and in this tutorial I’m going to share how to cinch a bottom-up slouchy hat closed. This simple tutorial will help make your hats slouchier and cozier.

This post contains affiliate links. I may receive compensation (at no added cost to you) if you make a purchase using these links.
Over the years, I’ve designed quite a few slouchy hats! At the end of the tutorial, I’ll post links to several free patterns that are closed by cinching up so you can try this technique out right away. I’m sharing a photo tutorial showing how to cinch a crochet slouchy hat closed. If you’re a knitter, check out my free Cables Galore Beanie pattern for a video tutorial demonstrating how to finish a bottom-up knit hat.
Cinching a Bottom-Up Crochet Slouchy Hat Closed
Photo Tutorial by Underground Crafter

In this tutorial, I’ll share how to cinch a crochet slouchy hat closed in five easy steps… and one of the steps is optional, and the other one you have to do anyway to finish your project. It’s that easy!
Step 1
Thread your yarn needle with long yarn tail from top of hat. (If you didn’t finish your hat with a long yarn tail, just cut a strand of yarn about 3 times the length across the top of the hat.) I prefer to use Clover Chibi bent-tip yarn needles as shown in the photo below.

Step 2
Weave your yarn needle through each stitch on the finished top edge of your hat.

Step 3
Slowly tighten the yarn tail to pull top of hat closed. Be extra careful if you’re using singly ply yarn as it is more likely to break if you pull it tightly.

Step 4 (Optional, for Larger Sizes Only)
For larger sizes, you may need to seam top of hat closed with the whipstitch after tightening the yarn tail.

You can find tutorial for seaming with the whipstitch here.

Step 5
With the yarn needle, weave in your ends on the inside of the hat.

That’s it, you’re finished!
Now that you know how to cinch a bottom-up crochet slouchy hat closed, try out the technique out on these free crochet patterns!
- Around the Block Slouchy Hat in 10 sizes is available in my Subscriber Vault. Sign up for my newsletter here to get access.

- Auntie Em Twister Hat in 6 sizes
- Herringbone Slouchy Beanie in 9 sizes


- True Blue Slouchy Beanie in 10 sizes
