A Quick Sew - A Witches Hat

We hosted a small Halloween party last night. Sprog and Widget chose whatever they wanted from the dress up box, but both chose the PJ Masks costumes I finished last week. Husband went as Donald Trump which was easy, a suit, a pillow, and bronzer, completed with an offcut from Widget's Ewok costume for a wig.

My costume was a last minute through together. I pulled my Academic robe out of the cupboard, my favourite, but dying stripey socks from the drawer and slapped green face paint over bared skin. To cap it off I popped on a hat made fresh that afternoon.

This was a super quick sew. If I hadn't been sewing a Mummy-ing simultaneously it would have taken 15 minutes from go to woah.

For this hat I used the Oliver+S bucket Hat pattern as a base. I made it in the largest size, ostensibly size 6-8. It was a smidge on the small size, but having tried Sprog's Paddington Hat and having it fit OK, I figured a size that worked for the boys dress-up box would ensure the most use.

For this one I used black felt. I cut the brim as normal. the crown I did away with completely. For the pointy part of the hat I lined the pattern piece for the side of the hat up against the fold then drew a straight line from the other end of the pattern piece on the same angle all the way up to where it met the edge.

Then it was cut, sew down the straight line, attach the brim as per the instructions and wear.

One last minute witch costume.

Sewing a hat for Paddington Bear

This week was book week at preschool. The last day was dress up as a book character day. It's something of a family tradition to go to book day as Paddington Bear. When my sister was fairly small, about 6 or 7 she saw a coat and fell in love with it. It is a blue wool coat with tartan lining and a hood, very similar to Paddington Bear's duffel coat. I remember wearing it to be Paddington Bear when I had dress up day at primary school. It is such a good quality coat, and so good for Paddington dress ups, that my mother never got rid of it. My sisters kids have all outgrown it, so it has been passed onto me for my boys. Last year Sprog had a Paddington Bear party, but only wore it a few minutes as it was a warm day. Now it's time for the coat to come into it's own on book day, but to complete the look he needed a hat. A great big floppy red hat.

I have been meaning to try the Reversible bucket hat from Oliver+S for a while now and this was my chance,  albeit with a few modifications.

After a quick poll of facebook friends to confirm my instinct I went with felt in a bright red. The pattern calls for two layers of each section, giving the hat it's reversible quality, but since this was specifically for Paddington, and felt is a bit stiffer than the cotton it would usually be made of, I went with a single layer.

I cut the crown to the pattern. The sides I extended by tracing the bottom edge then moved the tracing paper over two inches before tracing the top edge, and ruling the sides anew. Doing it this way rather than just extending the sides two inches ensured that the crown would still match. The brim I also extended, this time I measured an extra two inches out in a number pf places then redrew the edge around those 2 inch points.

Then it was just a matter of following the instructions to put it all together. I trimmed the seam allowance in the crown, and sewed the brim/side seam flat to help the shape. The extra two inches make the brim super floppy, but Sprog is happy with his new hat.