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.

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.