My girls love to play and dress up, so why not make have some fun hats to use inside our out.
Or for a rocking horse to use!
You will need about 2 yards of fabric, 1 yard for the outside of the hat including the small flowers, and 1 yard for the lining, stripe, and other flower.
You start with this basic shape a triangle with slightly curved sides. For the hats I made the triangle measured 6 inches tall and 4 1/2 inches across the bottom. These hats were a little big for my girls, but that just makes them look more floppy.
You need 6 of these triangles for the outside of the hat and another 6 for the inside lining layer of the hat so 12 total.
First you sew 3 of the triangles together by the side seams so it looks like this. Do this for all triangles. You will have 4 sets of 3 triangles.
I wanted my hat to curve at the end of the top so to make the curve I place the hat down with a string to help mark the curve. Tape or pin a string to the top point of the hat. Make the string so it reaches to the lowest point of the curve then tie a pencil to the string and use it to draw your curve.
Then cut along your curve line so you have a nice rounded part to your hat.
Now to make the stripe on the hat I folded the triangle pieces in half and traced the bottom of the curved hat and up the side about 1 1/2 inches. This gives you the bottom of the stripe and the sides. I cut the fabric on the fold because I only traced half of the hat. I needed 2 of the stripes so I could have a stripe all the way around the outside layer of the hat. I did not do a stripe on the inside. You could if you wanted to make the hat reversible.
To make the brim of the hat I did the same thing with tracing the bottom of the hat. That line will be the top part of the brim where it will connect to the top part of the hat.
I knew I wanted the brim to be 3 inches wide so I measured down 3 inches and drew another line.
I then added 1/4 inch to the top and bottom for a seam allowance. So the finished piece was 3 1/2 inches tall.
You don't need to add to the sides because one side will be on the fold and the other side will be sewn into the hat.
Then cut from your fabric on the fold 2 for the outside of the hat and 2 for the inside of the hat. You will also want to use some type of interfacing to make the brim stiff. I went to Walmart and found the thickest stuff and used that. It wasn't iron on, but it still worked. Use the same pattern piece to cut the interfacing just cut a 1/4 inch smaller for the interfacing so it will be just inside your seams.
Now to make the rest of the hat. I took the stripe and ironed the top edge down 1/4 inch
Then lined the bottom of the stripe to the bottom of the triangles and sewed the stripe in place along the top edge.
Then you will want to attach the brim to the outside. So with right sides together sew the top part of the hat to the brim. When you start the fabric is curving opposite ways so you need to pull the top layer of fabric over as you are sewing so you can get the curve around the hat. Once it is sewn clip the curves
Now you want to attach both halves of your hat together. Make sure the points of the top triangle and the edges of the stripe and brim line up. You don't want your hat to look different from the front to the back.
To make the lining you want to repeat the same process. The only thing you want to do different is before you attach the front and back of the lining you want baste or Iron the interfacing in place on the wrong side of the lining. Then sew the front and back together.
Once you have the lining and the outside of your hat sewn you need to connect them together. Pin the right sides together. You will have the wrong side of the outside layer on the top and the wrong side of the inside layer on the bottom with the interfacing on the wrong side of the lining.
Sew the layers all together make sure to leave a small opening so you can turn your hat. Clip the curves and turn the hat. I ironed the brim flat, make sure to iron the opening edges inside so you can close the opening.
Then on the right side of the fabric do 1/4 in seam all the way around and you can close the opening of the hat.
I did several more 1/4 in seams so it was all secure all the way to the top. Make sure the lining layer is smooth under so it doesn't get puckers. I also made some crushed fabric flowers following the directions from Make It and Love It here
