Tuesday 26 February 2008

Bucket Hat

I got obsessed with making myself a sunhat last week. We have a work excursion coming up and were told to make sure we brought a sunhat. That reminded me that I didn’t have a nice sunhat (my current one is splattered with housepaint from our DIY over Christmas), which ensured that I would not rest until I had made myself one.

Behold, my new bucket hat:

Pattern from here but slightly resized to fit my big head! I also constructed it slightly differently so it could be reversible. I made a linen prototype first to get the fit right. That linen prototype became the lining. The black and white fabric is “Lily” by Joel Dewberry. I had originally planned to use some Lara Cameron fabric, but wanted to make sure the hat looked OK before I chopped into my precious stash. It turns out I like this hat just fine, despite the brim being a bit wonky. And I probably don't need to make myself two sunhats right at the end of summer...

Oh and if you were wondering about the amount of fabric needed, I only had a fat quarter of the Lily fabric and wasn't sure I had enough. Turns out you CAN get a hat (or the outside at least) out of a fat quarter IF the pattern is multi-directional. And you trace before you cut!

Edited to add:
It occurred to me that if any of you are going to attempt this pattern, you might like to know the changes I made.

The modifications I made to the sizing of this pattern was to add 1cm to each end of the brim and crown pieces (when I cut the paper shapes out the brim and crown pieces seemed too short for the top circle piece. Equally if your head was a bit smaller than mine, you could make the top circle piece smaller in diameter. My head usually fits a size 59cm hat.

I also made the brim narrower by about 2cm and the crown height shorter – I did this once I had sewn all the pieces together and tried it on for fit. I guess it is about trial and error until you get something that looks ok and fits your noggin!

To assemble the hat I assembled the entire outside and the entire lining, and then sewed them together around the brim edge, right sides together, leaving a gap for turning. I then closed the gap with a line of top stitching on the brim edge.

8 comments:

Little Miss Flossy said...

Fabulous, just what I needed! I made the bucket hat from Lotta Jansdotter's book over the weekend but it's more like a lampshade hat. I need a nice hat for school (setting a good example and all that) so I'll give this pattern a go.

Anonymous said...

That's lovely! I made the Lotta version too but the sizing was all wrong. I'll give this one a go.

Unknown said...

Cool hat! Ta for the tips -well done resizing, hats can be so tricky!
X Lies

Anonymous said...

It's lovely! Everyone who makes this style of hat seems to have problems with sizing and my head is enormous so I think I will leave this to the braver sewers. But OMG it looks like I offically love ALL of Joel Dewberry's fabrics! Where did you get it? That would be perfect for a beach bag!

kimberlee said...

yes VERY NICE !! queen of reversible.

Lies also rocks the reversible and I am in awe. good job ladies!

-kimberlee

Anonymous said...

The bucket hat pattern file located at the following link has been moved.
http://600va.com/share/buckethat.pdf

Currently there is a redirect on the file, but eventually the site will be taken down. Please update your site to reflect the new link:
http://h1.ripway.com/buckethat/buckethat.pdf
Also, I realized when I went to use the pattern that it was smaller than the hand drawn original I created. My computer version shrank. On 4/08 I published an updated version which I believe has corrected the sizing issue.

Enjoy!
Marsha

Anonymous said...

Hi there,
I was wondering if you could email me the pattern for this bucket hat? This would be very useful in my up coming textiles assignment and a good teaching resource.
If it is possible to see via email my email is erin.cleary@student.qut.edu.au.
Thanks
Kind Regards
Erin :o)

StevenHWicker said...

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