1 $.79 Sweater = 2 Great Hats!

I'll start off by saying that I made 2 because I did not photograph the steps to the first hat. I love this hat! I got the idea from Disney's post at 30 Days, on making a Cardigan hat. Disney runs one of my favorite blogs- Ruffles and Stuff. She has so many cute ideas! I only hope I'm half as good as she is some day. ;)

Since I did change the hat up a bit, I'll post a tutorial as well, but again, the idea came from Disney! I found my sweater at Goodwill for just $.79, and I was able to make 2 hats out of 1 sweater, with enough fabric on the sleeves for 1 scarf. At that price, each finished piece cost me just about $.27 to make. Can't beat that at the store! If you have an old sweater on hand, you can make this project for free!

Sweater Hat

You'll Need:

1 Old Sweater, adult sized SM or larger for kids, and L or larger for adults.
Scissors
Sewing Machine

1. First, you'll want to cut the sweater apart. To start off, you need a circle, so make sure the sweater is bigger in size. The bigger the circle, the baggier the hat. I used a dinner plate to measure my circle, but in cutting it, I made the circle larger by about an inch around. I used a rotary cutter to cut through it, and stuck my cutting mat in between the layers of the sweater, so only the top was cut.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Cut the bottom ribbing off the sweater. In the sweater I used, it had an extra long ribbing, which came in handy.
   
   
3. The circumference of your sweater circle will be longer than the ribbing, as an aside. In Disney's tutorial, she first sewed the circle with a straight stitch, then pulled the top thread to gather the material. My first try at that was a big fail.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Pin the bottom side of the hat to the ribbing, creating gathers as you pin. This is how I added gather to the hat, without being able to use the thread to create an instant gather. You may have to pin and re-pin a time or two to insure that you have the right size gather to fit the ribbing.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Leave the loose ends of the ribbing unpined. Once the hat is pinned, sew the two loose ends of ribbing together, then pin 1 last gather to the ribbing.
   
   
6. Sew along the gather, going nice and slow, and removing pins as you go- I noticed that some got hidden under the pleats created, and were harder to find at that point.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. If you are like me, you'll be in love with the hat once the first 6 steps are finished, and immediatly try it on. Now- if you had extra long ribbing, like I did, you'll note at this point that the hat resembles an odd, knit chef hat, and will create a weird mushroom above your head. It is not a flattering look. At this point, you'll pout a bit, and wonder where you went wrong. Or, since I have already done that for you, you can move on to step 8. Keep in mind, if you have ribbing that is only about 2 inches long, you can stop here, and enjoy your hat! If not, move on to step 8!
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. To conquer the prior noted problem, I folded the ribbing inward, and looked at the hat inside out. The seam should have some allowance for adding another stitch to it. I did not pin it the second time around, I just went slow, and matched the ribbing seam with the inner seam, and stitched it on top.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Fold the hat right side out, and you'll have a cute little, puffy beret type hat for winter!
   
   
10. Embellish as you like! On one hat, I added a little 4-loop bow, with a big button in the middle.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    

This was a fairly easy hat, though some knowledge of sewing and pinning is required. Or, trial and error, if you are a fast learner. Rather than attack my own sweater collection, I have been hitting up thrift shops for materials to use all week. The children's set I made earlier this week was nice, but I much prefer my brightly colored set.