Fishy Hat

Well, it was a journey. I bought a sun hat for Genny at the Day of the Dead fair last fall and saw how easy it looked to make, and have been wanting to try to make one ever since. Genny has a large head for someone her age (thank you Spina Bifida) and so she grows out of hats quickly. Hats aren't cheap, and now she's into adult size hats, so they don't make cute ones for little girls in adult sizes. Since I happen to be crafty, I thought that if I could make a hat for her, then I could make several so that her pretty little head doesn't get sun burned.

I started my first prototype a few days ago, ending up with a bucket hat that a flapper would have loved in the 1920's. Then I tried again, tweaking my design and got the Mad Hatter's hat instead. I finally broke down and looked up patterns online and found a nice sun hat design for a toddler. I figured that it would probably be too small, but I have material for Glenn's hat anyway, so I made the first hat from the pattern in Glenn's fabric knowing that he will grow into it, but also knowing that Genny could use it first if it fits her.

Here is the website I found the hat on: http://sewing.about.com/od/childrensclothingprojects/ss/flutedhat.htm Now, I don't know what some of the instructions mean (cause I haven't taken any sewing classes and have not found that I need to figure it out yet) so here's what I did... I printed out and then cut out the pattern piece. Then I cut out 6 from each fabric. Then I sewed them all together, making in essence, two hats. I then created a nice sewn edge on the brim of each hat. Then I sewed the brims together, making the hat reversible. I didn't use bias tape (whatever that is) and I pretty much just ignored all the other instructions. But it turned out the way I wanted, so I'm happy.

Genny is now asleep, so I tried the hat on Gus. It didn't quite fit him. We'll see tomorrow if it fits Genny, I doubt it, but now that I have the pattern, I can enlarge it for her. I'll post pictures of that when it happens.

Happy Father's Day to the dads out there!!


Hat #1, the flapper hat. It's now destroyed.


Hat #2, the Mad Hatter hat, it's being saved for Genny to use for dress up.


Gus isn't a very good model


The other side next to Glenn