A Sweater to a Santa Hat

Actually, that's misleading, as it takes 2 sweaters to make the Santa hat. These turned out so cute, I just love them!

Sweater Santa Hat

You'll Need:
1 Red or Burgundy Sweater
1 Cream, White, or Tan Sweater
Sewing Machine
Thread
Hand Sewing Needle
Fleece or Ribbon *This is optional, and just depends on how you make the ball for the end of the hat
Pins

 

{My new machine, when it worked, and I loved it}

1. Cut the sleeves off the sweater, at the seam. From here, try the sleeve on the person's head the hat is meant for, using the cut opening for the head. If it fits, you can move on. If it's too big, pull it tight, and pin where you will need to sew. If it is too tight, cut the seam off. If the seam was already cut off, but is not too tight, move on, as this part is not actually the part that will go around your head.
   
2. Once the arm opening for the sleeve works right and fits around your head, measure the waist or (if it is rounded and not V shaped, boat shaped, or square) neck of the cream/white/tan sweater. To do this, do NOT use a measuring tape, as the material will stretch. Use your head, and wrap it around, pulling it taut. cut this portion of the sweater hem off.
3. Pin the two sections together, with the sleeve turned right side out, and the hem inside out & upside down. You want to pin it so the raw side is pined to the sleeve, allowing for the finished side to be unsewn.
4. Sew a zig zag stitch around the pinned side, so the hem is firmly attached to the hat. I always leave the two ends of the hem free until it is attached to the hat, then I sew them together, and add another stitch to the top to attach the ends to the hat.
   
5. For the end of the hat, you can do a few things. You could attach a bell to a ribbon, and attach it to the end, pulling the material into as tight of a V shape as you can, and hand stitching it together. You can use fleece to make a fleece fringe ball, and again, hand sew it in. What I did with this particular hat, though, is take a square of the cream sweater, and fold & roll it into a ball shape, then hand stitch it into that shape. From there, I hand stitched it to the end of the sleeve. When I pulled it out, it looked odd, though, so I used ribbon to tie a tight bow in place, then I hand stitched the bow to the hat, so it won't untie.
6. The last thing I did was to run a straight hand stitch loosely down the seam of the sleeve, from the opening to the top of the hat. Then, I pulled it, so that the underside of the sleeve gathered up. 

These hats will slouch off to the side naturally, because of the shape of the arm & arm opening. I loved how easy they are, and I can make 2 hats from 1 sweater, and still have the torso of the sweater left for future projects.

They are just adorable, and while a traditional hat is red and white, you can certainly customize it to meet your needs- matching jacket color, different colors for different kids, etc. My oldest daughter and my son both requested red with green instead of white. I made mine with a burgundy colored sweater, and cream sweater, so it looks more old fashioned.

The nice thing about these, are that they are custom fit, so they stay on, and they are warm, so they can be warn as winter hats.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My cost per hat is roughly $.79, as that's how much I pay per sweater at Goodwill. Honestly, though, the cost is cheaper than that, as I still have plenty of the sweater material left over after having made 2 of these.

Homemade Scarves & Hats

I have been making fun fleece hats for several years now. The kids love them, they're warm, and they are pretty cheap to make, if you shop right. At the bottom of the post, it tells you how I get my fleece dirt cheap, all year round.

This is an article I wrote a few years ago on Gather, and the original can be found here.

First things first- pick out 1 or 2 fleece fabrics. When you lay it out, you want the fabric to be laid out so that the stretch is what will fit around your head. Usually, that means using the raw edges as the top and bottom of the hat, not the material finished edge.

Next, using a tape measure, measure your head circumference- or the circumference of the person who will be wearing the hat. If it's for a gift, use a comparable sized head. ;)

Now, you want to measure the fabric. The general rule is to make the bottom edge the length of the head measurement, plus 2 inches. That gives an allowance for seams, while giving a snug fit.

If you want to use just 1 fabric, you'll want it to be 16-18" wide (tall) for an adult, or 14-16" wide (tall) for a child. If you use 2 fabrics, you want the adult width to be 14-16", and 12-14" for children.

If using the 2nd fabric, cut the contrasting fabric to be 4 to 4.5 inches wide, and the same length as the hat- your head circumference, plus 2 inches.

Next, we start the sewing. You want to pick a side of the fabric that you want to face "out". Usually, one side has a slightly fuzzier side. I usually put that side to face inward.

So, lay the fabric with the right side facing down on the work surface (which for me is the floor), then lay the shorter strip along the bottom edge (which can be either side if it's unpatterened, or without a specific direction to the pattern). This strip should also be right side down.

In comes the sewing machine! After it's lined up, sew a straight edge along the bottom edge of the two fabrics. Once it's done, snip the excess thread, and fold the flap so that both of the right side's are facing out.

Now, you want to fold the top edge of the 2nd fabric inward, and pin it into place. Sew another straight edge, this time along the top edge of the thin band of fabric to hold it into place.

You can sew another line under that one, and a third along the bottom half if you choose.

Now that this is sewn into place, you need to fold the fabric in half, so that the two side edges (the short edges) are lined up, and the hat is inside out again. Sew a straight edge down the side, but leave the top 3-4" of fabric unsewn.

From here, you'll need either yur scissors or a rotary cutter to fringe the top 3-4" of fabric. Turn the hat right side out. Gather the fringe, and take a spare peice of fleece fabric to tie around the top of the hat, gathering a "puff ball" of fringe.

Viola! You have a cute hat that took about 20 minutes, and only cost a dollar or two. To keep the price low, and your options high, I recommend scanning the remanent bins every time you go to a fabric store.

Anytime there's fleece, go ahead and pick it up. It's half the price it would be on the shelf for the same cut of fabric, and often, it's marked down even further. Joann Fabrics regularly has their remanents on sale 50-75% off the marked price, making it pennies on the dollar of buying it off the bolt.

And again, it gives you some awesome choices as you stock pile it. Of course, you eventually start to run out of room when storing it, but that's just semantics, right?

My favorite winter hat is a "Santa" hat I made- instead of a contrasting fleece, I used fake white "fur", which can be found at Craft stores. Instead of a straight hat, I cut it on an angle, to make it triangular. For the end puff, I made loops instead of fringe, and I attached a big jingle bell to it. The kids love that hat, and I get so many compliments on it!

Another thing I like to make in the winter are handmade fleece scarves. It seems like my kids are forever losing stuff, and these things can cost up to $5-6 at the store. This is a repost from an old Gather post of mine as well, found here.

What you need:

Fleece Fabric, 2 or 3 strips 60-80 inches long, 3-4 inches wide. Cut so that it is stretchy width wise, not length wise. I buy my fleece in remenents at Jo-Ann's & Wal-mart, and usually get it 25-75% off the price of buying the same cut from the bolt, and I get LOTS of patterns and colors to choose from this way.

Sewing Machine

Scissors

What to do:

1. Lay the fleece strips on top of each other. The edges do not have to match perfectly.
2. Sew a zig zag stitch straight down the very MIDDLE of the fabric, not the edges.
3. Use your scissors or a rotary cutter to fringe the edges. You can do it narrow or wide. Make sure you leave about 1/2 inch of space near the middle uncut, so the scarf doesn't cut apart!

Decorative Touches-

Use contrasting colors & patterns for the layers to make a full and colorful scarf.

Twist and pull the fringe to curl it.

Use school colors!

This project takes roughly 10 minutes, and can be done with help from little ones. Make sure to help them with the actual sewing!

One of the best parts of both of these items, are that you need almost no sewing "Know-How" to make them. You can even make them without a sewing machine, though it IS much faster with a machine. These make wonderful gifts for adults and children both!