So its well into Autumn here in Canterbury, the leaves are dropping everywhere the mornings are getting colder and I know those frosts aren't far away. I have been musing doing a fun Hat design for awhile. As I do lots of surface designs for OTY Fabric NZ I often do woodland animals designs, and of course Foxes and other cute animals feature on there. So I thought lets design a some fun hats to go with all the cute prints over at OTY.
If you know my young Master Picklefish you know he loves Hats. So far hes not that enamoured with Beanies, but we are working on it. Don't all kids love to play dress ups? Maybe not so much Picklefish, but secretly us Adults love a silly hat too don't we? So what better way to wear the warm soft fabrics over at OTY than by going through your scraps bin and making some hats for family and friends.
So without further ado lets go sew a basic hat (and maybe sew on some cute ears) using my newly drafted Knit Fabric Hat for sizes 52-56cm circumference heads.
What you need:
You'll need to print out the FREE pattern which you can find HERE
Scissors, Pins/Clips, Pattern Weights, Marker Pencil
A small amount of French Terry or Cotton Knit (about a FQ) and suitable lining fabric (I have used Merino knit I had in stash)
Scraps of CL, Felt, or Polar Fleece if you are making the ears
Standard Sewing Machine with Jersey needle
Overlocker and Coverstitch (optional. you can sew it all with a standard sewing machine using a small zig zag stitch)
Thread
How to make your hat:
Cut out your Hat pattern, taking care to sellotape the hem piece to the hat piece following the A-A markers to line it up. If you are making the Hat with Ears and want it less slouchy style cut on the dashed line at the hem rather than the Hem Band. I recommend cutting on the dashed line for Kids as the Hat is quite loose fitting and the shallower you cut it the easier it is to have the ears sitting correctly on smaller heads.
You will need 2 x Outer Fabric (I used French Terry) and 2 x Inner Lining Fabric. If you are making the Ears you will need 4 x Ear pieces, 2 x Left and 2 x Right. Also you will need to trace the Inner Ear pieces and cut from a suitable contrast fabric (I used Cotton Spandex scraps, but you could use Felt or Polar Fleece too, as long as it doesn't fray). Depending on the fabric you have used for the Ears you may need to interface the main Ear pieces to ensure they stand
upright. If you are making the Fox, Mouse, Cat or Bear Ears in Cotton Knit I would recommend interfacing the Back Ear pieces on the wrong side with medium weight interfacing. If you are using Polar Fleece or French Terry this won't be necessary.
Grab your Left and Right Ear pieces (Fronts) and pin each inner ear piece to the front. Stitch around the Inner Ear piece with a straight stitch and remove pins.
Clip or Pin the Backs of the Ears to the Fronts Right Side to Right Side. Stitch or Overlock around all the sides leaving the bases open for turning.
Turn your ears inside out and press. Fold the Ears in half matching each side seam (as per the picture) so that the inner ear is hidden inside the fold.
Stitch a small dart across the back using straight stitch. It only needs to be a few centimetres. This will create a little crease in the ears and help them to shape correctly and stand up nicely on the hat.
Transfer markers from the pattern piece to the top of the Outer Hat piece. Clip your ears between the markers ensuring the front of the ears right side matches the right side of the hat. Clip the raw edge of the ears to the raw edge of the Outer Hat and baste ears in place. NB: ensure the ears are facing the correct way depending on the ears that you are adding they may tilt towards the top of the hat (e.g. the Fox or Cat ears).
Grab your Outer Hat pieces and your Inner Lining Hat pieces Right side to Right side and Clip and Stitch the bottom edges together. Do this for both sides of the Hat.
Lay both Hat pieces flat Right Side to Right Side and clip around all outer edges. Leaving one side edge about 5-6cm open on the lining piece of the Hat.
Sew around all edges with an Overlocker (or small zig zag on a standard sewing machine) taking care not to join the openings on the top of the hat. NB: take care not to catch your Ears in the side seams, you may need to tuck them out of the way as you sew feeling within the Hat to push them away from the edges as you stitch.
Fold Each Hat top so that the upper crown opening is flat matching the top of the side seams together and clipping. Stitch across the upper crown seam and tie off the ends (if using an Overlocker).
Turn Hat through the lining opening as mentioned in the step above.
Tuck the lining seam allowances into the opening of the hole clip and stitch the opening closed (you can do this with a small zig zag stitch or hand sew closed).
Stuff Lining back into the Outer Hat so the Wrong sides are together. Press outer Hat hem edge and top stitch the Hat about 3-4cm above the Hem edge. You can do this with a decorative zig zag stitch or 3 thread Coverstitch. The top stitching NEEDS to be stretchy so I don't recommend doing a straight stitch for this step.
And you are DONE! If you want to do a basic Hat without the ears go ahead and just follow the steps for the Hat ignoring all of the instructions for the Ears, and your hat will be made nice and quickly. Feel free to share on our OTY Fabric Share Facebook Group or to tag us on Instagram.
Thanks for reading and trying yet one more of my Tutorials! If you want to make the Fold Over Hem or Ribbed Knit version of this Hat please head over to the next Tutorial Version 2.
Vivien
Picklefish NZ