Winter Flat Cap

When I made Maxx's coat, I had some leftover fabric, so I made him a matching flat-cap using Nikki's "You Sew, Girl! Flat-cap" pattern. I cannot believe it has been almost two years since I made his last flat-cap. This one is warmer for winter than the last one.

Despite the heavier fabric, this hat was much easier to put together than the last one was, and sewed up in no time. I also have a couple of these cut out ready for the boys.

My First Beanie

Inspired by a free Cleckheaton knitting pattern from a Spotlight promotion, I decided I was going to knit a beanie. I've never knitted a beanie before, so of course I wanted to give it a go. There were two problems with the pattern from Spotlight. The first problem was that the pattern was too big for Amélie, and secondly, it had a seam up the back. I prefer to avoid seams in knitting where ever I can and love to put my circular needles to good use.

So the search began for a beanie pattern that came in toddler sizes and could be knitted in the round with 8ply yarn. Of course, Ravelry is the place for all things knitty - I am NoahsMummy on there if you want to seek me out. There were lots of free patterns to choose from, but I eventually settled on this Child's Self Striping Hat. Only I didn't go for self-striping, I decided to work in stripes using different coloured yarn, inspired by the original pattern I had seen.

To keep Noah busy (because he needs to be kept out of trouble), I set him to work making me a pom pom. The pom pom is probably a bit on the big side (I guess that depends on how you like your pom poms) and maybe even a little bit too dense, but both of those are my fault.

The stripes were a bit tricky. When you knit with circular needles, you really are knitting a spiral. This means that each time you start a new colour there is a jump, or a jog. To overcome this, I found a youtube tutorial. (I love YouTube for knitting tutorials). Basically, you start the new colour, as normal and start knitting. Once you get back to the start of the round, you pick up the right leg of the stitch beneath, to pull it up in line. You can see from the picture above, that I did struggle to get this right, but I worked it out by the time I got to the top of the beanie.

I may just be a little bit addicted to knitting beanies. They are a great little project and knit up fairly quickly. Perfect for in front of the television on these cold wintery nights, and really good for instant gratification. The stripes could be a great way to use up scraps of left-over yarn as well.

Do you have a favourite knitting project that you like to make?

Ty's Teddy Bear Hat

I made this hat for Ty for Christmas. Ty isn't quite three months old yet, so the hat is still a little big on him. It should fit him better next year.



Don't be fooled by my hand, it makes the hat look smaller than it is. You can see the same sized hat here and here. It is the baby hat from the Nicole Mallalieu, "You Sew, Girl!" book. It took about an hour and a half to put together, though I would advise, if you are using fabric with scattered prints (like this one), that you take the extra time to make sure that the bears are not all upside down!



I love the structure of the drill fabric and how well the lining goes with it. Both fabrics are from my stash.

Maxx's Flat Cap

This is Maxx's new favourite hat. I made it for him for Christmas, using Nicole Mallalieu's Flat Cap pattern. I had been thinking about making it, and whilst chatting with Amy (Badskirt) last Friday afternon, we decided to have a little (virtual) sew-along and immediately downloaded the pattern.



Amy was a little lot faster at getting her hat together than me. I had three little ones to contend with and they were happily spilling things and having little disputes and wanting snacks and bandaids and doing the usual kid stuff. I did manage to get it all cut out and my mess cleaned up before Maxx got home from work. Because it was a secret Christmas gift, it was Sunday night before I got back to it (and finish it), after he went to bed.



The hat is actually made from some furnishing fabric of some kind. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I wouldn't recommend using it for a project like this again. The weave is actually quite loose, so it frayed really easily, which made for difficult sewing at times. My sewing machine even tried to eat it at one point!

Other than the fabric issues (oh, and the kids-being-around-issue) the hat came together fairly quickly. I think the next hat will probably only take me a couple of hours, now that I know what I am doing and since I will use some proper fabric that doesn't fall apart!

7. Hat Parade #4

I am really glad that my hat sew-along inspired Cam of Curly Pops to finally pull out her Kids' Hat pattern and use it after it lingered in her stash for about four years! Doesn't it look great? It's in her favourite colours too! It is good to know that the largest size in the Kids' Hat pattern is most likely going to fit my head too, since it goes all the way from 48 - 57cm. I am betting Cam's nephews might be finding hats under the Christmas tree this year.



Rachel from Four Wise Monkeys made a hat for her daughter, Maya, using the Oliver + S bucket hat pattern, which is also available as a free download. Even though it was the largest size, it was a little small. It looks very professionally made. I expect there will be plenty more hats in Maya's future too.



Michka from Lilli May Designs made this beautiful sun-bonnet, which she markets as the Cassandra Cap through her facebook page.



Wendy, from Sew Biased made these two hats, and another third hat, using the Oliver + S bucket hat pattern from the book Little Things to Sew which is also available as a free download.



This was actually going to be a wrap up post. There are still hats coming in though, so I think there is at least one more blog post in it. I am so excited by all the hat sewing that has been inspired by my little sew-along. I might just do it again next year!

2. That's what little boys are made of

Before the dead-line, I managed to scrape in two more hats. There is nothing like leaving things to the last minute! Of course, I once again used Nicole Mallalieu's (You Sew Girl) Kids' Hats Pattern. I should mention that if you are looking for options, this pattern has them. You have three sizes, small, medium and large. Then added to that, you have a range of different brim sizes and also brim finishes to make your hat just how you like. I personally like to go large when it comes to brims and give my boys lots of protection from the sun, so my brims are the second largest brims and the boys are wearing medium sized hats.



My favourite thing with these hats, I wasn't really sure wasn't going to work. I love the appliqué. I applied some Steam-a-Seam 2 to the back of some left-over lining fabric and then cut it out a couple of frog motifs, really carefully. I then peeled off the backing and ironed them onto the (already interfaced) crown pieces. I lowered the feed dogs and used my free-motion foot to stitch them down.



I was really worried about those long, skinny toes, but it seems to have worked. I did three laps around each frog, matching the main colour of the frog on each one. When I did the toes, I didn't so much go around the edges as I did kind of meander along them.



I have made these hats before using corduroy, which has really stood the test of time. The boys hats have been through the ringer and so abused, yet they still look really good. The lining in the old hats was a Kokka cotton-linen, so it will be interesting to see how well the quilter's cotton holds out.



I'll be back here very soon to do the wrap up from the sew-along...

1. Blogtoberfest 2012

I was in two minds about joining in this year. Should I? Shouldn't I? Am I too busy this year? So I wrote a list of things that I could blog about and whilst I didn't come up with 31 blog posts, I figure I have enough to get a jump start on the month and maybe I'll figure the rest out as I go... So I'm in!

My goal: 31 blog posts in the month of October.


I will be back in a couple of days to do a wind up post for my hat sew along. It went really well. There are still a few people who haven't come back and told me they finished their hats, though. So if you managed to get a hat finished (or even close to finished) in the month of September and it isn't on the list, please let me know. If you need a little extra time to finish your hat, that's okay too, let me know. I managed to scrape in two more hats before the deadline. I will be back with those, too.

Hop to it!

Working on Liam's and Noah's hats for the hat sew-along. Less than three days left. I like to believe I flourish under pressure. These scissors with the big handles and tiny, pointy blades are great for accurate cutting.

Do you leave things to the last minute, too? What are you making today? Do you have a favourite pair of scissors? Would you like to see some more Creative Spaces?

Hat Parade #3

Suzie, aka Floosy Girl from No Moa has been sewing up a storm! Suzie has made several hats, all using the Oliver + S bucket hat pattern. I love the Hilco fabric she has used for this one (above)



Two of Suzie's hats have been made of fabric that was hand-printed by her daughter for a school production. One of them sports a bouquet and a feather. She will definitely stand out from the crowd in that!



You can read more about Suzie's hats here, here and here.

Next up we have Aimee from All the Pretty Threads who has made two reversible hats using the Oliver + S bucket hat pattern.


I love the Saffron Craig fabric used to make this hat (above), and the Tula Pink fabric in this other hat (below).


Amy from Chapter Fifteen has made her hat using the Make It Perfect Sun-kissed hat, which is perfect for wearing with a ponytail. I love the Doctor Seuss fabric too.


So how is your hat making going? It seems like these hats are coming in two by two, can anybody just make one? We have less than a week left to go, but there is still time to sign up. Click the button below to find the sign up list and make a hat before the end of September.

Hat Parade #2

Mellita of Sew Hot Right Now had buckets of fun making two hats using left over fabric from other projects.



Mellita used the Oliver + S Bucket Hat pattern, which is available as a free download.



Jenni has also made two hats using the Oliver + S Bucket Hat pattern. Jenni has never made a hat before, either. I really like the John Deere hat. I reckon I could easily round up maybe half a dozen little (tractor-loving) boys that I know would love one of those.



If you are looking for some hat-wearing tips, Nikki has posted some on her blog, along with the hats she has been busy making.



Coco of Coco's Loft has made her hat using Vogue 7600. Coco used fabric left over from making a blouse. It has a lovely wide brim.


******** SPECIAL OFFER! ********

As part of my sew-along, 

Stitch 56 is offering my readers a 

10% discount 
off You Sew, Girl! hat patterns.

You can buy one or more of the hat patterns
Adult Hats, Fedora, or Kids Hats

 and receive the discount.

Just enter the coupon code

CARMELS-HATS

at checkout when shopping at Stitch 56

******************************

Have you got some scraps in your stash that you could turn into a hat? You have nothing to lose. There is still plenty of time to join in. Some people have already made two hats. Some of them even in the first week and without having ever made a hat before. This means that potentially, someone of any skill could make eight or more hats in the month of September..... or at least one!


Oh, and don't feel like you need to have a blog in order to join in. You don't have to have a web-address to add yourself to the list, just leave that bit blank. Let me know when you've finished your hat and we can add it to the flickr group and talk about it in here. The more the merrier!

Doe, a Deer...

The main reason I started this hat sew-along was because I went to put Amélie's hat on from last year and it didn't fit. Amélie didn't care, she wore it anyway, on top of her head.



I went looking through my stash and found this fabric with baby fauns and apples on it. It has been in my stash for years. I originally purchased it from Retromummy, back when she had her on-line store running. It's not quite pink, sort of slightly apricot and has been difficult to match with other fabrics. I decided to match it with the red in the apples and went with this red spot that I found at my local quilt shop.



I made my hat using the Kids' Hat pattern from You Sew Girl. I trimmed the edges with some cute binding that I bought a while ago from The Haby Goddess. I could see that the hat required further embellishment, so I added a hat band.



I think the hat-band really finishes it off. It is easily removed for washing and can be tied at the back or side, either loosely or in a bow.


If you are thinking about joining in with my sew along, there is still plenty of time. Just push the button above to go to the sign up post. We are only half way through the month and already several beginners have finished their hats. Some of them have even finished TWO. I still want to get at least two more made. One for Liam and one for Noah. Let's see how we go...

More Hat Sew Along links here:

• Sign Up Post

• Getting Started

• Hat Parade #1

• Flickr Group

Hat Parade #1

Ok, so we are approaching the mid-way point of the sew-along, and some people have finished their hats already. I will come back and talk about mine (above) in another post, but is that not the funniest photo ever of Noah and Amélie?



First up we have Ms Midge. Ms Midge effectively got two hats for the price of one none when she made the Oliver + S bucket hat. The Oliver + S bucket hat is available as a free down-load and is also featured in the book, Oliver + S Little Things to Sew. Ms Midge chose to make the hat reversible, and if you check out her blog, you can see how she has made it with NO HAND-SEWING! Gotta love that!



Ms Midge had never made a hat before now, but you cannot tell. It looks great both ways.



Next up, we have Jen from Ava Pot Pie. Jen has already finished TWO hats! Jen also went with the Oliver + S Bucket hat and made a hat for each of her daughters, Ava and Emily.



You would never know that Jen is also a novice to millinery, having also never made a hat before. I have a feeling lots of people will be getting hats this Christmas.



And finally (for now) we have a hat made by Melanie (who also happens to be my cousin) for her daughter, Adara. Melanie made the Kids Hat by You Sew, Girl! and also, had never made a hat before.


So don't be scared. You can do it. You can find the sign up post by clicking the button above. Join in. Make a hat before the end of September. Have you finished your hat already? Be sure to let me know.