Below are the creative liberties I took while following this pattern.

1) I started with a magic ring instead of starting off a chain.

2) I did not include the front/back loop as called for on the top part of the hat.

3) The pattern also called for the band to be loosely attached but I opted to fully attach it. At first I tried a slip stitch all the way around but it did not have any give. I replaced that with a single crochet the entire way around and when loosely stitched it provides plenty of stretch. I then tacked the band in two places to keep it from falling down.