Grownup sunhats!

Last summer, I went a little nuts with sewing. I've shared my daughters' reversible toddler sunhats, but the one I made for me wasn't quite the success theirs were. I wanted to love the result, but, well . . . I didn't quite.

I started off fantastic: a yard of gorgeous, emerald green 100% linen and a free sunhat pattern from BurdaStyle.

Only once I opened the file, it was less a pattern and more just instructions. I am not a sewing wiz. Frankly, I wasn't smart enough was too WAYWARD to follow the instructions well. The results? Also wayward!

So let me just tell you how to custom size your sunhat, wayward style!

First off, measure your head!! Measure around your head where you want your hat to fit. Please don't think that just because the pattern says you should make the hat 24" circumference and your head is 22", you should follow the pattern and your head needs "ease." It doesn't! Do not follow the pattern! Follow your head circumference! (Oh, and write it down.)

Top stitching on the crown

Second, measure your head!! And not just in the measure twice, cut once way. (And oh yes, I cut more than once.) Measure your head from forehead to the base of your skull, where you want your hat to hit. Also measure from ear to ear, where you want the hat to hit. Be sure to measure those lengths by wrapping the tape over where you want the center point of the hat to be. Take the average (i.e. add those numbers and divide by two). Write that down, too.

Now, you have your head measurements. The crown of the hat is made in six sections. So, if your head is 22" in circumference and your ear-to-ear/front-to-back average is 12", we'll need to divide that up into the sections. The ear-to-ear/front-to-back average is divided in two to give 6" as the crown height.

The circumference has to be divided by six, giving us the ugly number of 3.67" for the width of each piece.

Don't go cutting yet!

First, add the seam allowance to the measurements, 5/8" on each side. This brings our width to 4.92" (okay, rounding up will make the hat 1/2" larger around), and the crown height to 7.25".

NOW you can cut your paper pattern of a 4.92" x 7.25" rectangle. Lovely. Now, fold your paper pattern in half (making the rectangle even narrower) and sketch a curving, convex line, starting about 1/3rd of the way up the long edge and ending at the top midpoint. I might have used an iron as a tracing guide. Cut along the line and open to reveal your very nice, symmetrical pattern piece!

Cut 6 of these (or 12 if you want to line your hat; I did).

Now, cut out your brim. You'll need two of these. Again, don't make the mistakes I did!

Brims tend to hold up better if they're not quite a full, flat circle. Leaving out a segment of the circle gives the hat dimension and the brim shape. But remember that the inner circumference of the brim must match the circumference of the sewn crown!

I forgot that and drew a circle with an inner circumference to match the crown, then hacked off a bit of the end to make the not-quite-circle. My brim was too short to go all the way around my hat! Fortunately, I had some extra fabric and was able to fix it, but I was not happy!

So, let's say you want to omit 4" off the full circle (the more you cut off, the further down the hat brim will droop. Personally I wouldn't do more than 4"-6"). You'll still need to end up matching your 22" crown, so here's what you gotta do: add the amount you want to cut off the circle to your head circumference, bringing us to 26". Now, do some math (sorry!) to find the radius of that circle: 27"/(2*3.1415) = 4.30".

Using a protractor (or two pencils and a piece of string 4.3" long!), draw a semicircle with a radius of 4.30" on the edge of a piece of pattern paper (or newspaper, if you're me).

Top stitching and satin stitch along brim edge

Decide how wide you want your brim. Wider isn't always better--it can also be heavier, even too heavy to support its own weight! The Burda pattern also made the brim asymmetrical, 1/2" narrower in the back than in the front (6" in front, 5.5" in back). However, I feel like the interfacing used just isn't strong enough to support the brim and it ended up too floppy. To reinforce a wide hat brim, you might consider Timtex or buckram.


Draw a second circle to finish the brim (or 2 more circles, if you're changing the brim width) by adding your brim width to the original circumference to get the outer circle radius: 6" + 4.30" = 10.3".

NOW, on the INSIDE semicircle of the brim, measure in 2" (half of the length we're trimming from the brim) from the edge. (If your brim will be asymmetrical, make sure to do this on the narrower/back side.) Sketch a line from this point out to the outer circle. (You need this to be large enough that you can fit the hat together, but the larger the angle this line would form with the edge of the paper, the more the brim will angle/droop down.)

Add your 5/8" seam allowance all around and label the angled end "back". Place the non-angled end against the fold and cut two whole brims.

Now you have all the pieces ready for your custom sunhat. The BurdaStyle directions from here are very helpful. Hopefully it will fit you better (and come together with less trouble) than mine!

Outdoor sewing room photo by NormaNack

Reversible toddler sunhat

Two years ago, we had a Wayward reunion at the beach—and I had big plans about all the crafts I wanted to make for our cute beach gear.

Top priority was a sunhat for my girls. I found a cute free toddler sunhat pattern with ruffles and ties online at Merriment Design, and I used a photocopier to blow it up to adjust to my 3-year-old (I think I sized it up very slightly for my 1-year-old, too).

The pattern is adorable as is, but . . . I'm wayward. I can't just sew according to a pattern! I have to do something! So I adapted Merriment Design's pattern to make the hat reversible. You can see a peek of the inside fabric in this shot:

For the most part, the changes are pretty easy, but be sure to read the notes at the end!

Materials needed:

• Merriment Design's pattern (first link in her materials list)
• 1/3 yard (approx/depending on size) each of two fabrics
• Rotary fabric cutter, self-healing cutting mat and clear acrylic ruler
• Fabric scissors
• Iron & ironing board
• Thread
• Pins
• Sewing machine

Cut out your hat!
Using Merriment Design's pattern:

• Cut 4 triangles from fabric 1
• Cut 4 triangles from fabric 2
• Cut 4 brims (2 top, 2 lining): Fold fabric 1 in half, right sides together. Cut 1 brim pattern on doubled fabric (making 2 pieces). For the second brim, fold fabric 2 in half, wrong sides together. Cut 1 brim pattern on doubled fabric (making 2 pieces).
• Cut 1 strip 25″ x 2″ for ruffle in each fabric
• Optional: Cut 2 strips 16″ x 1″ for the ties in each fabric (I used ribbon for my 1-year-old's hat, and omitted the ties for my 3-year-old's)

I won't copy all of Merriment Design's instructions, but following her directions, sew together the 4 crowns in each fabric, and then sew the two pieces of the brims together in each fabric (you will end up with four separate pieces at this point: a crown in each fabric and a brim in each fabric).

Make the reversible ruffle!
Match the 25" x 2" strips and pin right sides together. Sew a seam along one edge.
Press closed, then press open, then fold back and press flat:

Using two rows of long basting stitches along the raw edge, gather the ruffle to fit along the outside (larger in circumference) edge of the brim. Matching fabrics, pin right side of ruffle to right side of one brim, with raw (gathered) ruffle edge along outside brim edge (larger in circumference). Sew down.

Place the other brim right side to right side, "basically making a ruffle sandwich with the two right sides together" as Merriment Design describes it. Sew along outside edge.

Always being careful to match fabrics, sew the crowns and brims together using Merriment Design's instructions. If you're using ties, I recommend sewing those to the matching side of the brim before sewing to the crown. When the ties are on the "wrong" side, you can tie them in a bow at the back of the crown.

Notes!
Between the extra fabric from enlarging the hat and the added weight of the ruffle seam, the brim of my 3-year-old's hat was a little extra floppy. She loved it, but I would recommend lining the brim using interfacing.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Iron fusible interfacing onto the brim fabrics before cutting out brim pieces.

2. Fold interfacing in fourths and cut 1 brim (making 4 pieces), sewing the two pieces of each interfacing brim together, then adding those pieces to the outside of the ruffle sandwich and sew, being careful to match the asymmetrical shape of the brim.)

Rebecca with a friend

I made my girls' hats with a total of 3 fabrics: one fabric for both girls' hats so they could have a matching pair, and the other side in two different fabrics to match each of their towel coverups.

Unfortunately, the beach didn't agree with my one-year-old and she hates hats. But Jaime was kind enough to model for us (okay, she was making a face, but you get the picture here):

What do you wear to the beach?

Tissue Paper, Spray Paint, Fabulous!

Last week, my church had a "tea" party. (We don't drink tea, so I'm not really sure why they wanted to call it that.) All I really knew about it is that we were supposed to wear hats.

So I went big.

I'd just been perusing pictures from this year's Ascot, so I knew exactly what I wanted to do:

Princess Haya of Jordan, Sheikha of Dubai
via Order of Sartorial Splendor

But since the craft stores only supply straw hats, it felt a little more like:

I wanted my hat to be a little lighter, so I went for the good old standby, spray paint.

Two coats on each side left enough variation in the color to make it look natural.

Then Mom and I worked on the flowers. Mom made an accordion flower, and I made a big twist flower.

Accordion flower

Twist flower

Secure the twist with wire, trim to round the corners and you're set to go!

We combined our flowers, with Mom's according flower forming the center of for my big twist flower. I poked the wires from Mom's flower through my tissue paper and tied the wire below.

Rather than worrying about attaching it to the hat, I clipped the stem of the flower in my hair and put the hat on at an angle. It did fall off once, and the breeze was a problem when shooting photos, but it was also nice to be able to take it off to fit into my car without worrying about messing up the flower.

I also discovered my new life motto:

Just get me some spray paint and tissue paper, and I'm fabulous!

What makes you feel fabulous?

The RIGHT way to make a sunhat

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JAIME!!

Last summer, I went a little nuts with sewing. I've shared my daughters' reversible toddler sunhats, but the one I made for me wasn't quite the success theirs were. I wanted to love the result, but, well . . . I didn't quite.

I started off fantastic: a yard of gorgeous, emerald green 100% linen and a free sunhat pattern from BurdaStyle.

Only once I opened the file, it was less a pattern and more just instructions. I am not a sewing wiz. Frankly, I wasn't smart enough was too WAYWARD to follow the instructions well. The results? Also wayward!

So let me just tell you how to custom size your sunhat, wayward style!

First off, measure your head!! Measure around your head where you want your hat to fit. Please don't think that just because the pattern says you should make the hat 24" circumference and your head is 22", you should follow the pattern and your head needs "ease." It doesn't! Do not follow the pattern! Follow your head circumference! (Oh, and write it down.)

Top stitching on the crown

Second, measure your head!! And not just in the measure twice, cut once way. (And oh yes, I cut more than once.) Measure your head from forehead to the base of your skull, where you want your hat to hit. Also measure from ear to ear, where you want the hat to hit. Be sure to measure those lengths by wrapping the tape over where you want the center point of the hat to be. Take the average (i.e. add those numbers and divide by two). Write that down, too.

Now, you have your head measurements. The crown of the hat is made in six sections. So, if your head is 22" in circumference and your ear-to-ear/front-to-back average is 12", we'll need to divide that up into the sections. The ear-to-ear/front-to-back average is divided in two to give 6" as the crown height.

The circumference has to be divided by six, giving us the ugly number of 3.67" for the width of each piece.

Don't go cutting yet!

First, add the seam allowance to the measurements, 5/8" on each side. This brings our width to 4.92" (okay, rounding up will make the hat 1/2" larger around), and the crown height to 7.25".

NOW you can cut your paper pattern of a 4.92" x 7.25" rectangle. Lovely. Now, fold your paper pattern in half (making the rectangle even narrower) and sketch a curving, convex line, starting about 1/3rd of the way up the long edge and ending at the top midpoint. I might have used an iron as a tracing guide. Cut along the line and open to reveal your very nice, symmetrical pattern piece!

Cut 6 of these (or 12 if you want to line your hat; I did).

Now, cut out your brim. You'll need two of these. Again, don't make the mistakes I did!

Brims tend to hold up better if they're not quite a full, flat circle. Leaving out a segment of the circle gives the hat dimension and the brim shape. But remember that the inner circumference of the brim must match the circumference of the sewn crown!

I forgot that and drew a circle with an inner circumference to match the crown, then hacked off a bit of the end to make the not-quite-circle. My brim was too short to go all the way around my hat! Fortunately, I had some extra fabric and was able to fix it, but I was not happy!

So, let's say you want to omit 4" off the full circle (the more you cut off, the further down the hat brim will droop. Personally I wouldn't do more than 4"-6"). You'll still need to end up matching your 22" crown, so here's what you gotta do: add the amount you want to cut off the circle to your head circumference, bringing us to 26". Now, do some math (sorry!) to find the radius of that circle: 27"/(2*3.1415) = 4.30".

Using a protractor (or two pencils and a piece of string 4.3" long!), draw a semicircle with a radius of 4.30" on the edge of a piece of pattern paper (or newspaper, if you're me).

Top stitching and satin stitch along brim edge

Decide how wide you want your brim. Wider isn't always better--it can also be heavier, even too heavy to support its own weight! The Burda pattern also made the brim asymmetrical, 1/2" narrower in the back than in the front (6" in front, 5.5" in back). However, I feel like the interfacing used just isn't strong enough to support the brim and it ended up too floppy. To reinforce a wide hat brim, you might consider Timtex or buckram.


Draw a second circle to finish the brim (or 2 more circles, if you're changing the brim width) by adding your brim width to the original circumference to get the outer circle radius: 6" + 4.30" = 10.3".

NOW, on the INSIDE semicircle of the brim, measure in 2" (half of the length we're trimming from the brim) from the edge. (If your brim will be asymmetrical, make sure to do this on the narrower/back side.) Sketch a line from this point out to the outer circle. (You need this to be large enough that you can fit the hat together, but the larger the angle this line would form with the edge of the paper, the more the brim will angle/droop down.)

Add your 5/8" seam allowance all around and label the angled end "back". Place the non-angled end against the fold and cut two whole brims.

Now you have all the pieces ready for your custom sunhat. The BurdaStyle directions from here are very helpful. Hopefully it will fit you better (and come together with less trouble) than mine!

Outdoor sewing room photo by NormaNack

Reversible toddler sunhat

Ever seen a carnival-themed wedding? At first glance it might sound a little weird, but it's definitely a way to show your fun personality! Check out our Facebook page for pictures from the Carnival Extravaganza wedding reception we attended this weekend.

Last summer, we had a Wayward reunion at the beach—and I had big plans about all the crafts I wanted to make for our cute beach gear.

Top priority was a sunhat for my girls. I found a cute free toddler sunhat pattern with ruffles and ties online at Merriment Design, and I used a photocopier to blow it up to adjust to my 3-year-old (I think I sized it up very slightly for my 1-year-old, too).

The pattern is adorable as is, but . . . I'm wayward. I can't just sew according to a pattern! I have to do something! So I adapted Merriment Design's pattern to make the hat reversible. You can see a peek of the inside fabric in this shot:

For the most part, the changes are pretty easy, but be sure to read the notes at the end!

Materials needed:

• Merriment Design's pattern (first link in her materials list)
• 1/3 yard (approx/depending on size) each of two fabrics
• Rotary fabric cutter, self-healing cutting mat and clear acrylic ruler
• Fabric scissors
• Iron & ironing board
• Thread
• Pins
• Sewing machine

Cut out your hat!
Using Merriment Design's pattern:

• Cut 4 triangles from fabric 1
• Cut 4 triangles from fabric 2
• Cut 4 brims (2 top, 2 lining): Fold fabric 1 in half, right sides together. Cut 1 brim pattern on doubled fabric (making 2 pieces). For the second brim, fold fabric 2 in half, wrong sides together. Cut 1 brim pattern on doubled fabric (making 2 pieces).
• Cut 1 strip 25″ x 2″ for ruffle in each fabric
• Optional: Cut 2 strips 16″ x 1″ for the ties in each fabric (I used ribbon for my 1-year-old's hat, and omitted the ties for my 3-year-old's)

I won't copy all of Merriment Design's instructions, but following her directions, sew together the 4 crowns in each fabric, and then sew the two pieces of the brims together in each fabric (you will end up with four separate pieces at this point: a crown in each fabric and a brim in each fabric).

Make the reversible ruffle!
Match the 25" x 2" strips and pin right sides together. Sew a seam along one edge.
Press closed, then press open, then fold back and press flat:

Using two rows of long basting stitches along the raw edge, gather the ruffle to fit along the outside (larger in circumference) edge of the brim. Matching fabrics, pin right side of ruffle to right side of one brim, with raw (gathered) ruffle edge along outside brim edge (larger in circumference). Sew down.

Place the other brim right side to right side, "basically making a ruffle sandwich with the two right sides together" as Merriment Design describes it. Sew along outside edge.

Always being careful to match fabrics, sew the crowns and brims together using Merriment Design's instructions. If you're using ties, I recommend sewing those to the matching side of the brim before sewing to the crown. When the ties are on the "wrong" side, you can tie them in a bow at the back of the crown.

Notes!
Between the extra fabric from enlarging the hat and the added weight of the ruffle seam, the brim of my 3-year-old's hat was a little extra floppy. She loved it, but I would recommend lining the brim using interfacing.

There are two ways to do this:

1. Iron fusible interfacing onto the brim fabrics before cutting out brim pieces.

2. Fold interfacing in fourths and cut 1 brim (making 4 pieces), sewing the two pieces of each interfacing brim together, then adding those pieces to the outside of the ruffle sandwich and sew, being careful to match the asymmetrical shape of the brim.)

Rebecca with a friend

I made my girls' hats with a total of 3 fabrics: one fabric for both girls' hats so they could have a matching pair, and the other side in two different fabrics to match each of their towel coverups.

Unfortunately, the beach didn't agree with my one-year-old and she hates hats. But Jaime was kind enough to model for us (okay, she was making a face, but you get the picture here):

What do you wear to the beach?