Some Orange Hats

For the past few years I've been giving hats to my brother, his wife and their five kids for Christmas (I have breakfast with them on Christmas morning).  This year Dina (my sis-in-law) called and asked if I was doing the traditional give of the hats.  Yes, I say, why?  Well she has an idea.  The older boys will participate in a ski weekend and they all want to wear the same ones, would I be interested instead of buying the hats making them something "orange".  I pause for a moment and then think . . . WHAT A GREAT IDEA!

Will she give me creative license to do what I want . . . OF COURSE she will . . . so while Anna and I are shopping for fabric for her mom's apron I come across this really funky orange winterish looking t-shirt fabric that I HOPE will be warm enough for their tender ears!

I borrowed a hat that they "kind of already like" but is a bit small and get to work.

FOR THE GIRLS:

Make a "sock" to go over a 1" elastic 3-4" in length

Serge both sides of a 20" X 9" piece of fabric (the short side is what gets sewn on to the elastic)

Run a gathering stitch on the short sides

Circle the short side AROUND the end of the elastic; pulling the running/gathering stitch and overlapping the ends

Stitch down OVER the elastic

Flip inside out (DO THE SAME FOR BOTH SIDES)

FOR THE BOYS:

Cut a piece of fabric 22.5" x 11.5"; Serge the length on both sides then sew the short side together

Flip over one end 2.5" and sew down with a straight stitch

Pin on the seam and then half way between that and the ends (you can sew these down 1" if you wish but I didn't bother

With the end facing you fold the opening in half towards the pin

Then take the second opening and fold that in half towards the centre

Do the same with the remaining two openings and pin down

Sew a 1/2 running stitch at the top

Then take two of the folds and pin them together and pin the other two together (you should have four pinned parts all together (two on each side)

Stitch down the four pinned folds

This isn't a great picture but . . . 

Turn it inside out and voila! this is the top!

Here is my awesome brother, his wife and their five kids in the hats - they LOVED them; Sam (the youngest) said he wasn't going to take his off - he was going to wear it ALL DAY!

Thank you for letting me be creative on these - one type for the boys, one type for the girls (and it won't ruin their hair) and I think everyone is happy (see their smiles)!

I made in total three girl headbands and 8 boy hats - You never know who's going to be the lucky recipients!