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.

All Dressed Up

A few months back, Raegan picked out a hat she wanted for winter. It was $12, and while it was cute, it was simply not in my frugal budget. I did keep it in mind, and watched for it to go on sale, but it was also at a store not near us.

A few weeks ago, I found the same hat design without embellishment at Family Dollar for just $4. Well, $4 I can do. I found one in black, to match her jacket, and picked it up. I had, at the time, intended for it to just be a plain winter hat that she would get for Christmas.

Fast forward a few days later, and I bought a container of buttons. One of the buttons was a large black faceted button. It was just perfect to embellish the hat, but there was only 1. I did some button digging, but nothing else was really dressy enough.

I finally sorted through my beads, and pulled out a lot of clear faceted beads to use. I hand stitched everything to the hat. I can't wait to see if she likes it! It's a cute, somewhat dressy looking hat now!

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.

Busy Thursday!

Yesterday, I was really in a crafting mood. Here are just some of the projects I worked on yesterday! I'll do full reports on several of the bigger projects, but here's a sneak peek!

Jeweled Ornament-

This is easy to do, however, the glitter does not dry very fast, and in order to handle it easily, it could be broken up into 2 days worth of projects, which is excessive for the simplicity of the ornament. When left wet at an up & down angle, though, the drips kept going. If they were sideways, the gems started to smear off to the side. Not sure if we'll do this craft with the kids or not!



Every year, I make the kids new winter hats. They are fun, and easy to make, and the kids love them. This is my first one this year, which I made for my youngest using light blue fleece, and blue, purple, and white patterened fleece quilt blocks. These were from a quilt package I picked up years ago, and never got very far with. I've been using the blocks for scarves, pillows, and now, hats. I cut the seams all the way around, which turned out cute, I think!


My friend Karen really liked the wreaths I've made, so she requested one. I was hoping to find purple for her, but Dollar Tree was out of purple, and Walmart didn't carry any. I did find purple late last night at Meijers, but at double the cost! 24 ornaments for $10! Not happening, too expensive! She settled on the ice blue & silver, wintery combo.


I picked up these light bulbs at Goodwill- a 4 pack for $.59. I got 2 packs of red, and 1 pack of green. These ornaments were super easy, and I'm glad I went with the larger light bulbs, as the eyes used were the smallest ones I had, and fit just right.


I posted this project yesterday, but since it's one I did during the day, I thought I would add it to my accomplishments for the day!


Last night, I did this shrug made from a t-shirt. This was my second try at it. My first try was a disaster. I will say this- do NOT use one of those form fitting, super stretchy shirts, because they do not come out good. This was a baggy v-neck shirt, and I love how it came out!

I followed the tutorial here.


Last week, I found a brand new, plain red felt tree skirt for $2.99 at Goodwill, and picked it up. I considered doing some applique work on it. My next stop after Goodwill, though, was Dollar Tree, where I found 2-count packs of large felt Christmas Trees in green & red. They also had large ornaments, which I liked, but came in red & white. I'd have to use 6 packs of those instead of 3 packs of the trees. All I did was count out the spaces (24 scallops, 6 objects- 1 object every 4 scallops), and hot glue them into place. I have a nice, unique tree skirt, and I only spent $6 total!


And, that is what kept my busy yesterday!