Hat Tutorial

Here it is, what you've all been waiting for.  (ok, not all of you. But some of you.)  This is how I made the hat for my sister.

*Disclaimer.  I fly by the seat of my pants a lot while crafting, so I don't have exact measurements, but I will show you how to find your own measurements the best that I can.*

All you need is:
An old skirt
sewing machine
seam ripper
pins

Pretty easy so far, right?

When I saw this skirt in Charli's throw away pile, I immediately saw the awesome fabric and then I noticed the waistband.  The waistband on her skirt is about 3 1/2 inches wide making it perfect to make a hat with.

I began by having my sister measure her head.  Then I unpicked the waistband on the skirt and then cut it to be the same as the measurement of her head plus a little extra for seam allowance.

The nice thing about using the waistband is that a lot of the work is already done for you.  To make it a stable hat, it needs to have at least two layers of fabric.  The waistband in this skirt had it already put together for me.  So, all I needed was to add a top a brim and embellish.

The next step is to cut out the top circle/oval part.  It should be a long circle, but not quite an oval.  I think I cut out two or three different sized circles from the lining of the skirt before I had it just right.  (I would suggest using a hat that you already have as a pattern to look off of for the top.  If you have a hat that fits you really well, add 1/4 of an inch all the way around for seam allowance when you trace it onto your fabric, and it should work great as a pattern.  After you cut the circle out of the lining, you will need to cut one out of the top layer of the skirt as well.  (It is easier to replace a lining fabric if you mess up)  Put the pieces together and pin it so that it looks like this.

Sew it up and turn it right side out.  It should then look like this.

From this point on, things get a little sketchy.  Making the actual hat part was no problem for me.  The brim was another matter entirely.  I stopped taking pictures at this point because of frustration.  I made three different brims on this hat but never felt like they fit just right.  Here is how I finally figured it out.  (In words, no pictures sorry)

I put the hat on and decided where I would want the brim to begin and end.  Then I traced an arc onto the skirt fabric using the hat as a guide for where it should go.  I cut out two arcs and then sewed them right sides together only around the arc part.  After that, flip it right sides out and top stitch the brim in two strips. (See picture below:

Then to attatch the brim to the hat, put the right side of the brim against the wrong side of the hat and top stitch. 

The waistband had two buttons and button holes which I thought would add a lot of character to the hat so when I cut out the hat I cut it so that the button holes were part of the hat and then sewed the buttons on top of the button holes.  I also used a little lace from the bottom of the skirt to finish it off.

I really like the way it looks, and the good news is.....It fits Charli's head!  YAY!  Here she is wearing it. 

Charli told me that she really loves it and that is good enough for me! 

Now it's your turn.  Go find that skirt that doesn't fit anymore and make it into something that you will wear and love!  I would love to see what you come up with if you do make one.  You can send me a link to show me at joniemarie85@gmail.com, or you can just leave a comment with a link to your post.

Good luck and please feel free to ask me any questions if anything was unclear.