December 17, 2007

Spread holiday cheer with a quick and easy Santa hat!

My daughter has always loved Santa style hats around this time of year. After seeing the beautiful La Scala velveteen in a dark red color at Sawyer Brook, I knew we could improve on her old ones.

This is a quick and easy project requiring just a few materials. Here's what we used:

La Scala Velvet  in claret. We definitely hit a high note when we spotted these Italian cotton stretch velvets. Perfect for jackets to dress up or down or slim pants/skirts to show off a textural coordinate.See them all! These are something to sing about! Available in four colorations Nero (black), Verde Ottano (teal), Crimini (mushroom), and Claret.48 in. Reg $17 yard Sale $11.99 yard

Materials:
 velvet-- You'll probably use at least half a yard
Fun white fur (from a craft store)
a pom-pom
a long tapestry needle
crochet cotton thread
sewing thread

We made up our own pattern for this. It's basically two tall triangles sewn together with fur trim and a pom-pom on the end. Rachel measured her head circumference. Then we divided that number by two and added about two inches for ease and a seam allowance. On a piece of tracing paper we drew a line of that length. We marked the midpoint. Then we decided how tall her hat should be. Hers is about 17 inches long.

>From the midpoint on the line, we drew another line 17 inches tall to make the point of the triangle. We added the angled lines and had our pattern.

Velveteen has a napped surface. That means that when you run your hand lengthwise on the fabric it feels different in each direction. When working with napped fabrics it's important that the pieces all run in the same direction so your project won't look or feel funny.

We cut out the velveteen, making sure both pieces were going in the same direction. Then she sewed the triangles together using a half inch seam allowance on the two long side seams.

Then Rachel measured the circumference of the base of the hat to get the measurement for the fur trim. She cut a six inch wide piece of the fur, that length measurement, plus an inch for a seam allowance. She sewed the short ends of the strip together with a half inch seam allowance create a ring of fur. Then she folded the fur, wrong sides together, and pinned the ring to the bottom edge of the hat. We decided that the seam of the fur would not line up with one of the seams in the velveteen, but would be centered between them on one of the edges to create a center back.

She sewed the fur ring to the hat using a zig-zag stitch to take advantage of any stretch in the fur, and a half inch seam allowance.

The hat was looking good at this point, but needed a pom-pom. She threaded a long and dangerous looking tapestry needle with thin crochet cotton yarn. She pushed her needle through the point of the hat, in between the stitching on both sides of the hat. This was easier than trying to push it through the more densely woven fabric. She threaded the needle through the center of the pom-pom and tied it off. She trimmed the ends and put a dab of glue on the knot to hold it securely.

This very cute hat took less than an hour to make. In fact it was so much fun for her to do this that I had the students in my middle school sewing class make them last week. The girls loved working with the luxurious velveteen and fun fur.

Happy Holidays!

Carole

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