This is the week of accessories! Another Extra item in my Sudoku grid is a bucket hat. I figured I didn’t need to prototype this new pattern, and I was so very nearly wrong ha ha.
I used Liz Haywood’s free Make a Hat pattern. Thank you, Liz, for recognizing that some of us have generously sized melons… I fell right into the middle of the sizing range on this hat, whereas when I shop in stores I can rarely find a bucket hat that fits.
Similar to the fanny pack (snicker), I used Supplex Nylon in Slate Blue (colour no longer available but maybe they’ll bring it back) and Surfer Stretch Woven in “Paisley Pinks” from Discovery Fabrics. I ordered the paisley pinks fabric JUST for this project, but now I’ve also used it in the fanny pack and I cut out a pair of hiking shorts from it before I did any of these small pieces, so there will be shorts in my near future of this outrageous fabric. I am looking forward to that.
It took me two tries to get the interfacing right for this. On my first attempt, I used a non-woven heavy fusible interfacing, and it made the nylon fabric very stiff. Too stiff. I was going to just stick with that and see how I liked it after a while, but when I was trying to sew the sides to the top of the hat, it just was SO impossible, that I decided maybe a different interfacing was needed. I switched to a medium-weight woven fusible interfacing instead, and that is much better. Really, I shouldn’t even bother having that non-woven stuff in my studio anymore. It never turns out nicely. Weft, tricot, and woven interfacing are much more conducive to my happy sewing results.
As it happened, the reason the sides were not going onto the top of the hat very well was because I was trying… repeatedly… to sew the bottom of the sides, which are a larger circumference, to the top. Yes, I had it upside down. Yes, I tried it four times before I finally figured out my mistake. Yes, it all went smoothly once I actually was attaching the right things together. *facepalm*
Aside from my OBVIOUS and SILLY mistakes, this pattern goes together quite quickly and I really like the oval shape of it. My head is not round… why would I want a round hat? I like that this fabric has a durable water repellent treatment and is also breathable (so is the lining) so it’ll work well in summer rainstorms.
I kind of sort of want to do this hat again in a more exciting fabric for the outside, but for the time being I’ll leave it alone. I’ve got other things to sew for the Sudoku contest and need to get on with those. If there’s time left over at the end, I can survey my stash and see if there’s a more exciting version in my future. Also I’ve ordered a metric butt-ton of 1″ grosgrain ribbon off AliExpress because I couldn’t decide what colour I wanted… then I went out and found the perfect thing at Gala Fabrics anyways. So when that ribbon arrives from China, perhaps I’ll go and make a bunch more hats.
