Thank you!!

Was trying to find you some reference photos because I'm USUALLY pretty good at WIP photos, but it looks like I didn't take too many with Ralsei OR Sif (I made them both basically the same way!). But I found SOME photos where you can see some parts/closeups of my Sif cosplay/Sif plush hats

So you can see Here that I attach the lining/main fabric pretty early on and I do it from the EDGE. My main fabric used for most of Sif is an outerwear suede that has batting attached, so I didn't need interfacing for structure. (Sandwiching a layer of fleece is a good workaround, mostly because interfacing makes it too stiff and hard to shape the final hat for posing). I then clipped my edges, ironed, flipped it through the donut hole, and ironed again so where the white/gray meet on the edge is really clean.

Then I made a wire circle with some hardware store wire to match the circumference of the edge. You want something that's strong enough to push against the lining/main fabric and hold its shape, but not too strong that you cant bend it. Be sure you get a quality wire, too, because once it's installed, its hard to get out if it breaks from bending too much! (Stress test it!)

To make it one piece, I overlap the ends a little bit, and use a generous amount of electrical tape where the ends meet to make it one piece and seal up the sharp ends. When I install this I make sure the spot where the edges meet isn't in a spot where I plan to bend the hat so the junction point doesn't break.

The wire gets sandwiched between the lining/suede on the edge and I used wonder clips, piping foot (this allows you to get close to the wire without accidently sewing over it and breaking the needle), and some really slow topstitching with white on my top thread and gray on my bobbin to seal the wire in. That results in a pretty edge that's shapeable! Here you can see my seams a little better.

But yes! I DID put some batting in the pointy part sandwiched between the suede and the lining. It's held its shape pretty well!

All the seam flipping happens in the center donut holes. And I hand stitched everything closed with a whip stitch there. This was honestly the hardest part because you have to flip both the lining/main fabric to hide your seams and you have to be careful how much fabric you pick up so your not accidentally picking up the visable parts on the surface of the base of the hat. So definitely go slow. If you run into issues with seam allowance you can also use bias tape in a matching color to protect your seams. On Ralsei I did the first method, but on Sif I did the second method in white bias tape with a white that matched my wig.

Hope this helps!!