Peekaboo Partridge Hat

Today I finished up a summer hat for Adam using the Peekaboo Partridge and Happy Scrolls fabric I ordered waaay back in my third trimester.  I had planned to use those fabrics for his chenille blanket but in the end thought the design was a bit too busy for so large a piece.  They work perfectly for something small like a hat though!

The idea for a summer hat came to me when we were at the cottage in Manitoulin and I put on a hat that a friend had handed down to us. It fit Adam pretty well around the head but the straps were too short to encircle his chubby cheeks.  Simple fix, right? Just extend the straps...but wait!  Why not make a whole new hat for him?  Ok yes, I was just looking for an excuse to make him something new.  I haven't found the time yet to make him proper articles of clothing like onesies, shirts, or shorts yet. Instead I've been in a sewing marathon for accessories like bibs and drool pads for the teething monster. But hats are pretty simple and heck, why not?

So one night while watching an episode of House of Cards after Adam went to bed, I threw together my own hat pattern based on the sunhat our friend gave us.  I made it a teensy bit larger but otherwise it was more or less the same.  Ta-dah - three parts!

Altogether there were 12 pieces to assemble (not including straps):

• Top circle - 2x side A + 2x side B
• Side wall - 2x side A + 2x side B
• Brim - 4x side A + 2x heavy interface/brim stiffener

Obviously you can vary the side A / side B combinations to your liking.  I chose to use the same fabric on both sides of the brim but you could choose to use different fabrics so that the hat is reversible. I was tempted to make this one reversible, only I wanted to add straps and didn't know how to make that work on both sides!

The brim was the trickiest part. I didn't have heavy-weight interfacing on me so I sandwiched a piece of the thicker herringbone from his newsboy cap between the Happy Scrolls fabric.  Then I sewed somewhat equidistant lines around the brim to make it look more "professional".

My mistake was connecting the two herringbone brim halves together by putting right sides together (what you would normally do) because that made for an extra thick seam.  The sewing foot had a really difficult time getting over that section of the brim and ended up squishing the outer fabric into a weird wrinkle.  You can see it in the above photo (yuck).  Also it was a challenge lining up the brim seam with the side wall seam of the hat because of all that extra fabric so they are offset.  Oh well.  I ended up positioning the straps so that these seams end up on the sides of his head rather than front and back.

Honestly though, the only thing this little guy cares about is gnawing on every possible surface.

These Life-Saver looking things are so delicious

Checking the fit before adding the straps

To finish, I cut out two long strips of fabric to turn into straps. Pretty straightforward.  I added velcro to the tips and slid the other ends between the inner lining and brim.

And yes, that's a custom-made bib too.  Maybe I'll write about the bib marathon some other time but basically I've had to sew a bunch of bibs myself to ensure they are thick and absorbent enough to keep his drool rash at bay.  Yaaay teething!