White Sunhats

I've been waiting to make these hats for a long time, and some gloriously sunny weather, over a long weekend, finally prompted me to get on with it. That, plus a self-imposed rule that I complete one thing for me, and one thing for the girls each month. These were May.

I had quite a few frogs to eat, to get these made. First, I had to re-size a pattern, then I had to find some very old, stashed supplies. It's lovely to have things to hand, but it is also hard to look them out and find them when you want them. Easier to buy at the time, and make the project then and there.

But, back to the hats. E had this adorable hat when she was about 4-5 years old. I got it from Target in Australia and she wore it a lot. It went with everything, and looked really cute. I was very sorry when they grew out of it, but it has taken me about 5 years to recreate it. I finally got my Mum to SMS me this picture of the picture - because she has it up in her house, and I couldn't be bothered looking through my photo archives for it. I got the trim from eBay, and I knew my white cotton twill would be perfect. 


Their last two sunhats, red and starburst (blue-ish) have become too small. I had made the largest size of the Oliver & S Bucket Hat, so I knew I needed to increase the sizing of the pattern. Google showed me this tutorial for increasing a size in a pattern, so I used this as my starting point. I also looked at the changes between sizes of the hat, and tried to mimic the amount of change to take it up another size. 

Then I cut out a toile from an old white business shirt. I forgot to flare out the edge of the brim to make it broader, and decided to leave it out of the real hat, because the trim made the brim heavy, and I would not have had enough. I decided to add about 3/4 of an inch through the sides of the crown too.

I finally got on with this project on Friday when I had a day off and we were set for a run of sunny days. I wanted the girls to actually have them, you know, this summer. I didn't quite meet my target of that afternoon, for two hats, but I was pretty close.

I couldn't find my white quilting cotton for lining, so I used two old business shirts. They worked really well. There was no problem joining the two different weights of fabric, and the twill is very heavy so it was nicer to pair it with a light fabric for the lining. 

I joined the brim seams with a 1.5cm seam allowance (all others are 1cm). I interfaced with medium weight interfacing. 

Trimming them was really fun. I used light pink thread for attaching and just did it by machine. I did three bands of top stitching around the brim. The yellow doesn't really show up, so I put that closest to the lace. I had just three motifs left over: two butterflies and one flower. I supplemented these with buttons from my button jar, including two ladybirds that I have had for years. It was nice to find a worthy home for them. I didn't do any embroidery on the side of the crown. The original hat has this, but I left it off.

I finished off by hand stitching the lining down where the crown meets the brim. I'd like to trim the underside of the brim with a narrow ribbon. The hat is a bit plain up by the face, more so on the butterfly one, the flowers hang over the edge more. 

Costs:
   Fabric: £3.19
   Lining: £0.00
   Interfacing: £1.12
   Trim: £4.98
   Thread: stash
Total: £9.29 (£4.65 each)