If you are looking for more ways to help the medical community right now, surgical scrub caps are another thing healthcare workers are asking for! This post has a free printable surgical cap sewing pattern that you can download and sew! Make a few matching masks and give them to a hospital in need!
This diy scrub hat pattern includes two variations with adjustable backs to fit both men and women. Scrub caps can be made with basic cotton, which is best for the hospital washing process. These can be reused and even made to match a surgical mask! An easy diy scrub cap and mask set would make a really fun gift for a nurse, doctor, vet, dentist or other healthcare worker!
There are two variations included, an all-in-one tie back and one with a binding across the bottom. Instructions are also given to add elastic to the back of the cap, which will give you a snugger fit around the brim of the hat.
Also see:
-3 Ways to Make a Face Mask
-Hospital Face Mask with Filter Pocket
-Kids Face Mask Pattern
Materials for Surgical Cap
- 1/2 yard 100% cotton fabric such as quilting cotton
- 1/2″ elastic (optional)
- 1/2″ binding or bias tape (optional) or create your own with pattern
- Pattern Pieces, download below
Scrub Hat Sewing Instructions
Use a 3/8″ seam allowance.
For the bow back variation, cut two top pieces and two side pieces from cotton.
Sew a baste stitch along the top of each scrub hat side piece. 3/8″ from the raw edge. I like to use about a 3-3.5mm stitch length so it doesn’t gather too much.
Match the cap top middle to the middle of the side piece and pin.
Pin the side piece all the way around the top, pulling the baste stitching as needed to fit. The tie part will not be pinned. Sew pieces together.
Clip seam allowance along the top of the hat and trim to 1/8″.
Repeat with lining pieces. Turn main inside out and lining right side out. Stack together matching all raw edges. Sew around the bottom edges of the scrub cap with a 1/4″ seam allowance. Pivot and turn around the ties and back of hat. Leave a small 2″ opening at the bottom of the hat.
Clip points and curves. Turn right side out and press well.
Topstitch along the bottom edges, closing the opening that you left. Tie the back pieces together and you’re done!
Surgical Cap with Binding Variation Instructions
For binding variation, cut out the side pieces using the dotted line indicated. Also cut 1 piece of binding 2″ by 44″.
Assemble hat main and lining pieces the same way as stated above for tie back variation. Turn one right side out and the other inside out. 
Stack hat pieces together and match up at the back. Stitch together using a 1/4″ seam allowance. Clip corners and turn right side out. Press well and topstitch.
(Optional) To insert elastic for a snugger fit, cut a 2″ piece of 1/2″ elastic. Sew to the inside of hat where indicated on pattern piece. Sew between both layers of surgical cap.
Stretch the elastic to the other marking on pattern piece and sew again. Pull elastic and sew along the top so elastic won’t move. Let go and hat with gather at the back. Repeat on other side. 
To create binding, fold long edges of strip in so they almost meet in the middle and press. Fold in half again and press.
Pin binding over raw edge at the bottom of the surgical cap and topstitch. Fold the ends of the binding under and sew.
Create a 1/2″ pleat on each of the side backs. Stitch down.
Done! Make a matching mask from one of these posts:
-3 Ways to Make a Face Mask
-Hospital Face Mask with Filter Pocket
-Kids Face Mask Pattern
Thanks for the video. I tend to be a visual person, especially when I am a little stressed. The video of the masks was great. Your explanations were also good. I was able to follow the instructions for the caps. You did a good job. Maybe it helped that I worked in the Operating Room for a while. This was the first time I have read through your blog. I will be coming back for more videos.
where did you find the video Please?
Thank you for such a great idea-I’m letting my sewing friends know about your website. Your illustrated instructions are such a great help. Mahalo and have a wonder Easter celebration in these trying times-take care and keep safe
Kate, thanks for your great patterns! I am a pretty novice sewer and trying to make these for my niece that is a nurse…I’m just confused about the liner…is it the skinny 3 piece section or do you make a duplicate of the sides and top?
If you look at the pattern pieces it says to cut 2 and one is a lining piece. You will kind of turn it inside out after sewing it together.
Gillian, basically making two hats and filling one inside the other so no raw edges showing. It will also make cap reversible. tape the three piece section together to creat one long piece. Hope this helps.
Thank you for the great pattern. I will be making a few caps this weekend at the request of my ER nurse daughter and her colleagues. When she first asked for it, I thought…ugh! But your pattern and instructions make it seem like it will be relatively simple.
The pattern download link keeps giving me a picture of the cap but no pattern pieces.
Thanks for the tutorial on the scrub mask. I have made 300 of the face masks for health care workers Now I have been asked to make scrub caps. Can you please explain how to put the elastic in the pattern? I think it is a good idea but not sure how to do
thanks
h
Thank you for the pattern.
Hi,
Thank you so much for the scrub cap pattern. I used to make them years ago & have long since lost that pattern. My husband just asked me to make he & his coworkers some caps as the hospital is running short. I remembered seeing this post of yours with the cap pattern; great timing.
Thanks for sharing!
R
Hello. I love the blue surgical mask that you show here but I don’t see how to download the pattern. Can you please provide a link? I have been asked to make these surgical caps for a local hospital.
Thank you in advance!
Hi Kate, Im looking for a bonnet style pattern with a flat band in front. Do you have an online pattern for this style. Thanks, Kathy
Very interested in the cap pattern now, I work as a chairside dental assistant. Our office is gearing up to be ready for seeing some patients, and while we’ve been wearing masks for years, the headgear is something new for our PPE protocol.
This was one of the easiest patterns that I have come across for a scrub hat. So, thank you for sharing. Sadly, it didn’t fit me. I am African American and have a LOT of hair, and this wouldn’t even fit over my head. :-(
I am going to make a couple to give to my petit, fair-haired friends, though!
I am making these scrub caps for my niece and neighbor who are nurses. The pattern fit my smallish head nicely. I also have short hair. These young women both have a lot of thick hair and average size heads. I made an adjustment to the pattern by placing the pattern 1/2” from the fold. To compensate the extra length, I added a little to the top of the cap. I also cut the ties an inch longer.
I appreciate your emails. You do a great job. Keep up the good work.
I can’t find a tutorial of this. I am a visual person and would like to see it being made. Is there one available?
Thank you so much for the pattern! I am making it for my nephew who is a doctor and has been pulled into the COVID section of his hospital in RI. Is there a way to download the instructions? I am a newbie and I need to constantly look at the pictures and read the text but it’s difficult running between the sewing machine and my computer. Thank you!!
What are the dimensions of the pattern pieces?
Awesome! I never thought about making surgical caps until a quilter friend mentioned that she’d been making them as well as masks.