Girls Weekend Part 4

My cute sister-in-law taught us to make these adorable hats.  They are perfect for the snowy weather that we've been having lately. Cute, Functional and best of all. . . Free!  Yeah, that's right, FREE! 

These little beauties are made out of old sweaters.  You know, those ones that are stacked in the back of your closet just waiting for a new lease on life?  Pull them out and let's get to work!

Amber's Class:

What you're going to need:

-An old sweater for the hat
-An old sweater of a different color for the flower (a cardigan-weight sweater works best for the flowers)
-Buttons or other embellishments for the flower's center (maybe from one of your sweaters?)
-Needle and Thread
-A tape measure
-A sewing machine  Don't be afraid, it's really very simple.

Alrighty,  let's get to it!

First, measure your head to get a good measurement for how big to cut your hat (we'll get to cutting in a minute).  My head measured 21 1/2 inches, Aubrey's measured 20 inches.

Now that you have your measurement we're going to cut out the pieces for the hat.  There will be two pieces: the front and the back. Because sweaters are stretchy you want to cut it a little smaller than what you measured.  I cut mine into 2- 9 inch x 9 inch squares.  Aubrey's was cut into 2- 8 inch x 8 inch squares.

Take the sweater that you are making the hat out of and cut out your squares.  Use the bottom of the sweater so that the ribbing will be on the bottom of your hat.

At this point, your hat will look like this:

...and your sweater will look like this:

At your sewing machine, sew right sides together by sewing a 1/4 inch seam up both sides of your hat, making a tube. 

When you sew the top make sure to round off the corners so that you don't end up with horns.

After you have all three side sewn, turn it right side out and try it on to check the fit.  If the corners need to be rounded off more, do that now.

Now that the hat is done, we'll do the flowers.

The flowers are made from circles of different sizes cut out of the second sweater. Use lids, cups, jars or CDs (whatever you have laying around) as templates for the circles.

If you want a frillier flower do more circles.  We found that at least five circles looks best.

Back at the sewing machine, change your stitch to zig-zag.  Sew around each of your circles, keeping your stiches as close to the egde of the fabric as possible.  As you make your way around the circle pull the fabric tight.  This will make the ruffles on the edge of the flower.

After you've sewn around all of the circles your flower is ready to assemble.  Just stack them up, biggest to smallest, choose your button for the center and hand sew them onto your hat. 

Voila!  A cute winter hat out of an old sweater you were going to get rid of anyway!