Winter Hat for Kids

The pattern for this hat was traced from a RTW hat I bought for Oliver last year, and which he seemed to really like. It’s basic. The outer fabric, as on the original, is a sweater knit (I up-cycled a sweater from Value Village!), and the inside is a lightweight soft fleece. I just decided to add the fringe along the top seam, so it’s kind of like a Mohawk – only now I think it could be a bit longer! (or different colours! the variations!!) There are a lot of pretty cool hand knitted kid’s hats around with great colours and designs.

 

Thank God I traced the hat last year, as it was quickly lost/misplaced this past fall! (No idea where it went, like the hood on his fall coat. How do kids loose so many items of clothing??!!) And yeah, it was the only hat that still fit him! The good thing about this hat though, is that it’s pretty quick to sew. I’m planning on scanning the pattern piece and putting it up here as a PDF for download. I’d hoped to have done this last month so it would already be available for everyone.

The original hat was constructed so that the back seam was enclosed in the lining, and then both layers were serged together inside along the crown seam (where the fringe is). It looked like a neat way to make it quickly, and I like that the back seams are flat inside so they won’t be bothersome.

Turns out it even fits me! (And it’s actually a bit long over the forehead, I’ll need to change that on the pattern.)

Looking at the way it sits on the head, I can see where some minor adjustments can be done. The ear flaps stick out from the head, when they should lie snuggly on the ear as it did on the original. And the crown is a bit too high, and the seam doesn’t come down far enough on the front and back; it seems to stick out a bit at each end. The fringe doesn’t help this though, there are 8 layers along the crown seam. Check out how high the presser foot is above the footplate!

It also just occurred to me that a pattern for this hat might actually be made with just head measurements. When Oliver gets home from school I’ll have to measure his head and compare to the pattern. Hopefully it won’t take long to test out on a bit of fleece.

Pockets on My Minoru Jacket

I’ve been trying to follow along with Tasia (Sewaholic) on her Minoru sewalong, but it’s going in starts and stops. My first muslin seemed too small on the top so I traced another set of pieces, just about all of them, and made a second. More changes were made on this muslin to widen the sleeves and give more room across the back, but now I’ve got the fabric cut and the shell of the coat sewn up I’m not sure all my changes were a good idea! It looks like I’m going to have to bite the bullet and start ripping out the sleeves and collar and undo some of my alterations. Aaaarrragh!! The cause of my problem might be that I used a cheap cotton/poly to make the muslins and it’s not draping like the fabric I’m using, which is Canadian Mist (50% Micropolyester / 50% Cotton, bought at dragonfly fabrics). Should have used the real McCoy for a muslin! (Just found out that I can get it at Darrell Thomas’ for $7/m, which is way less than at Fabricland.)

So, to get back to the main point of this post, when I read about Amy’s side pockets on her Minoru jacket I had to do it too, cause I love pockets. How many times have I been asked to hold onto someone’s toy car/plane/rock/thing? Countless!!

The pocket pattern piece was borrowed from a summer dress I made last year (still to be posted about), and just expanded a bit more. Also, the important thing is that the bottom of the pocket should be no lower than the hem stitching line, at about 3 3/4 " (9.5 cm). I'm not sure about catching the bottom of the pocket seam allowance in the hem as it might pull the hem up when my hands are in the pockets, so I'm going to add a short piece of ribbon to the bottom of the pocket and then catch that in the hem. One of my fleece jackets has this.

The pockets are made from a layer of black Bemberg lining (which I also used for the sleeves)facing the outside, with the main lining on the inside so it’s slightly visible on the outside, kind of peaking out. Unlike Amy, I did topstitch the side seams above and below the opening, but on the front piece.

It might be a bit hard to see as my topstitching isn’t very bold. The picture above shows most of the side seam with the pocket closed. The bar tacks are more visible in the pics below.

 

It doesn't look too bad! And I like having the seams topstitched.

So, that’s it for now, as I’m going to go backwards and start un-sewing next week! This week is a right-off as I’ve been doing a long-awaited spring clean on the house in preparation for guests coming this long weekend. I’m beat!

Hopefully I’ll be able to catch up again next week, but I’ve also got big plans for making up a pattern for my Kid’s Tool Belt! I’m sooo excited about that I can hardly sleep!