FREE PATTERN - The OTY Beanie

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.