Mad hatters bucket hat

I need to wear a hat at work but when my hair is up, the average ladies hat doesn't fit my big boof head!! My hair ends up all messy.

I thought I'd have a go at making my own bucket hat.

I had so much trouble!
I thought at first it would be easy. - Just measure my head and the rest will fall into place. - How wrong was I?!!!


After wasting most of my time trying to Google a hat pattern or some helpful advice I finally bought my favourite magazine Homespun,which just happened to have a bucket hat pattern!!! What a great excuse to buy it!!


Now you would think this was the end of it, but NO!
Because I am so impatient and found the pattern more complected and more time consuming that first expected I decided
"Bugger it! I'm gonna go with my first idea and wing it!!"
I warn you I have done this once only!! You may need to make corrections as I am no expert!!


Do not use expensive material and expect this to be perfect!!
You may need to use some of your own sewing knowledge to get this to look the way you like it.

So this is how I did it.

I measured my head, with my hair up, how I wear it for work. I then traced a circle plus approximately an eye balled 1cm extra for seem allowance.
I carefully cut the hat top out leaving a 4-5 inch circle of material for the brim in the excess material as you can see above.
The centre is the exact size of the hat top we just cut out. So be careful cutting it out!!


I would allowed 1 meter of each type of material as I used a fat quarter of purple and didn't have enough. That way your safe to stuff up!
I made the part that goes around my head between the top of the hat and the brim (don't know what it's called.) the circumference of my head plus 1 cm for seem allowance. Lets call it the strip.


Then I repeated all of this on a different fabric so I could reverse the hat for a different look.
This time I made the strip in two colours for some contrast and because I didn't have enough material to do it in one colour!
I just sewed the two materials together so they measured the same width as the first strip. Mine was 62cm by 10cm. The average head is about 57cm in most patterns, so allow extra for seam allowance.
Sorry I know these are terrible instructions!! Just cut it bigger than you need it so you can cut it to size! 

Next cut some interfacing. 1 piece of interfacing for each shape. So 3 pieces of interfacing in total.

I ironed each piece of interfacing to each of the purple pieces then cut to make sure the interfacing did not over lap the material. So you should have:

2 hat tops - mine was 20cm diameter 1 purple 1 blue
2 brims - mine was roughly 4-5 inches wide 1 purple 1 blue
2 strips -mine was 62cm long by 10cm wide 1 purple and blue the other blue.
Each of the purple pieces with interfacing ironed onto the wrong side.  

Now if you are organised more so than me you could layer your materials so you can cut each of the shapes once!

Next sew the purple strip material together at the short ends right sides together.
Pin and sew the hat top to the strip. I found this quite tricky.
Repeat with the contrast colour material. 

With right sides together and one hat top, inside the other hat top, sew raw ends together leaving an opening to pull out the right sides. 

Now sew the brims together with right sides together on the outside, larger circumference only.
Turnout to show right sides, ensuring the edge you just sewed is neat by poking it out and folding the interfacing down with your finger tips. 

Run a line of the largest stitches on your machine around the inner brim of the hat and pull the stitches up evenly to fit base of the hat top, giving a wavy look to the brim.
Sew the hat and the brim together, matching colours together, approx 2cm up from the hat strip's, raw edge.
This will allow you to turn the neat hat strip edges over the raw edges of the hat brim and sew down to give a neat finish. 

Cut any stray threads. 

 This hat is not perfect but I still think it looks great. Not exactly what I would wear at work but the kids think it's fun!!

My gathering is all uneven and next time I would make the hat top smaller and make sure the brim inner edge is the exact size as the hat top edge. I would also consider not using interfacing at all depending on the fabric I choose.

Now hat is finished and you can look as silly as me!!