New boater

I love my boater hats, and now I have made one in a wintery colour. As you can see the cover is crocheted (around a straw boater hat).I am also making others - but in colours for the summer. I will post them later.

 

 

Spring colours

I just love these colours that gives me the feel of  spring and summer.

How to make a pill-box hat

Inspired by Jackelyn Kennedys famous pink Chanel suit and pillbox hat, I have made my own version of the hat.

I thought I would try to show you how I make my pill-box hats. This one has a crocheted cover, but I have also made others that has fabric-covers, check out earlier posts or the page Other hats.

What you need

Scills
Hand-sewing and/or using a sewing-machine. If you don't know how to knit or crochet you can cover it with fabric instead.

Materials

1. Paper for pattern (I use greaseproof paper)
2. Padding. I have used soft (1,5 cm) and harder (0,5 cm) padding (the only thing the shop had that I could use)
3. Yarn to knit or crochet around the hat. Or fabric to cover the hat; fabric or old scarfs, wests, tops or whatever you fancy.
4. String (from the craft-shop).
5. Thread

Pattern
Make the pattern first. My hats are elipseshaped or circleround. Guess where I found the shape to make the pattern for the round one: in my kithencupboard (plate).

Padding
I had to use one thin but strong type of padding and another one which is thicker, or fluffy,  and more soft. For the side part you maybe just need one of them; the strong one. I have used both on this last hat because I didn't get the kind I have used before.

This is the elipseshaped one

The elipseshaped one: The top is 22 cm long and 17,5 cm wide. The side-bit is about 8 cm long, and about 66 cm wide.
The round one is 19 cm across. The side bit is about 9 cm long and 61 cm wide. I usually measure the side-bit after I have cut out the top, so I am confident that the measurements are correct.
Remember to add 2-3 cm extra on the side-bit. You may need it when you stich it together.


Sewing the hat together
I think the photos tells it all; Sew the sidebit together first, then attach the top to the ring.

I stiched the hat together by hand

Inside

The string
I make holes with a knife, or anything sharp at the edge of the side-bit, and pull through the string. You can do this before or after you have stiched together the hat. I prefer after.

String

By using string the hat is easy to adjust.

Knitting or crocheting
I have crocheted mine. I used the yarn Drops Alpakka Boucle, and needle number 4,5.
I don't have the pattern, so you just have to try by starting with making a circle and work with it from there.
After finishing crocheting I stiched it to the hat.

Before stiching

 

After stiching - FINISHED

The top



Finished


If the hat doesn't stay on your head and slips of all the time, you can stich a hair needle inside the hat.

Inside the hat
I have made a number  of different kind of hats and I have come to the conclusion that I prefer not to put fabric inside the hat. The problem is that usually the fabrics are silky and makes the hat slippery on the head. I don't care how it looks inside. To make the hat stay on the head/hair I just leave it without any fancy fabrics inside.


Fabric
If you want to cover the hat with fabric; Add a couple of centimeters to the pattern when you cut out the fabric.

Sewing on the fabric
There is at least two ways to do this;
1) sewing the fabric on the padding before you sew the hat togheter
2) sewing the fabric on the padding after you have sewed the top and side-bit togheter. You have at lest 2 alternatives here aswell; a) You can always sew the fabric togheter before you place it over the hat and fasten the cover to the hat by handstiching inside. b) Or you can handstich the cover directly on the hat; stich the top to the side, and finish by stiching the fabric inside.

For me there has been no better way of doing this. You will just have to try.