The no-pattern fleece hat

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity to teach something different. I taught 2 sewing classes at the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains Older Girl conference. I had a quite a few requests for the patterns for what we made. The second project was an online pattern for an over-sized tote bag. The first project was a fleece hat. We made 2 - one to keep and one to donate. There isn't a pattern for this hat, so here are the directions. I'll try to add pictures of each step at a later time, but for now here's a pic of the same pattern but with added ears I did for my son's Halloween costume.

1. Measure your head, or the head of the person you are making the hat for.
2. Cut a rectangle out of fleece. It should be 18" high and the width should be the head measurement plus 1". For little kid hats cut only 16" high. The height is measured up the selvage, the width is across, so the measurement of your head is the stretchy part of the fleece.
3. Sew up the selvage, 1/2" seam allowance.
4. Fold up one end of the hat to the inside of the hat; making a 4-6" hem. This is the part of the hat the will fold up on the bottom.  Make sure the seam is open so that the brim lays flat and isn't bumpy.  Sew with the smallest seam allowance you can manage.

The next steps are where it gets trickier:
5. Lay the hat down flat, inside out, with the seam on one side.  Measure down 2" on the seam from the top edge and mark with a pin.  Do the same on the opposite fold.
6.  Measure 1/4 the width of the hat across the top (open) edge from the seam and mark with a pin.   Do the same on the fold.
7.  Sew a diagonal from side pin to top pin on both sides of the hat. Cut those little triangles off.
8.  Refold the hat so the back seam is in the middle, and your 2 cut top edges are in the middle.  Measure the same 2" down the side on both folds.
9. Line up the top open sides and pin towards the middle. Sew up on a diagonal (I find it easier to sew from the side to the top, not the other way around).  Cut off those little triangles.
10.  Remove any pins that are left & turn the hat right-side-out because... you're done!

If you want to add a tassle, ears, or anything else you'll do that when sewing the top. I sometimes make a loop or tassle from the triangle piece I cut off.  I trim it to the shape I want, tuck it up inside the hat and sew the ends in when I'm sewing the last 2 top seams.

Enjoy your hat!

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