Another creation

I think I might have bitten off more than I could chew on this one.  When the nice weather hit and I wanted to take all the kids out to play and do gardening, we had a plethora of little girls’ sunhats – all very cute – and the girls had a great time deciding which one they would wear. 

We only had one bucket hat that was remotely the right size for Simeon.  It turns out that we don’t actually have gender neutral headwear.  This hasn’t ever been a problem, because we had hats galore for boys smaller than Sim is now…I’m not really sure why.  Hand-me-downs?  Gifts?  Purchases by me?

Sim wore the too-small turtle bucket hat that day, but I decided that I’d make him a hat.  I searched about on sewing blogs and realized that bucket hats aren’t that tricky.  One blog had a really cute one made out of worn out pants, and a pocket was even part of the design.  So cute!  I then recalled that Michael had worn out some pants…maybe they were still around. 

A phone call to Michael confirmed that he had pants and jeans that were worn out in a certain spot in the closet and that he wouldn’t mind if I completely cut them up.  So I found some cargo pants and began my project. 

Okay, it turns out that making this hat without a pattern was more tricky than I expected.  And the fact that I used the waistband for the hat (which I think, in an unbiased way, is totally cute) meant that attaching the brim was not going as smoothly as I had imagined.  And then there was the bobbin tension.

So I took a break.  I left the project for several days and let it steep.  When I came back, I suddenly had the patience to make the brim fit the hat.  And I realized that I should try rethreading to see if that fixed the tension issue (it did).  And I finished the hat. 

Here it is.  It’s much cuter on Simeon, of course, but I forgot to get a picture of that before bedtime, and there’s no way I’m waking him up for a picture. 

Since it’s a hat from worn out pants, it already has that lived-in look.  It is definitely NOT girly.  Simeon likes it. 

What you don’t see are the funky seams underneath…and you never will, because I wasn’t foolish enough to make a reversible bucket hat on the first try!

What I learned:  This might be a good project to actually have a pattern…it would have been a lot faster, I’m sure.  Also, that Simeon’s taste in hats is not fussy or discriminating.