Fleece Hats

Fleece hats are very simple, and can be easily made from fleece remnants at your local fabric store.

Materials:

• Fleece (one or two colors works well)
• Matching thread
• Optional - A bit of muslin for a nametag
• Optional - Some buttons or other decorations

Tools:

• Sewing machine
• Cutting implements

I used two colors for this hat. Measure your target head. For reference, my target head was 21 1/2" around.

For the top part, measure a rectangle that is a bit longer than your measurement, and about a third of that on the other end. In the example, I went with 23" by 7 1/2" for the white piece.

For the bottom part (the ear covering), measure the same length (23" in this case), but only 4" tall.

To cut the top part, fold it in half twice as shown in the pictures so you can easily cut four equal pieces. I just freehanded this shape. The longer you leave the straight edges, the blockier the hat will be at the end.

You now have a piece with four lumps.

Keeping the "good" side in the middle, fold the 4-lump piece in half to make a 2-lump piece.

Sew the long open curve first, up to the tip of the hat. Then, sew the opposite side.

Pull the remaining two sides apart so the un-sewn curved edges are lined up, as in the pictures. This time, sew all the way across the top, crossing right over the sewn tips from the last step.

I like to feed that very tip part through like an "S" shape, so on top, the excess is folded toward the machine, and on bottom, the excess is folded toward me. This makes it so I'm not sewing through 6 layers of fleece right there.

Fold the bottom part in half with the "good" side in the middle. Sew the short edges to make a single band.

Then, flip the band so it is now doubled over, with the "good" side out. This will be the ear covering.

Place the band ("good" side to "good" side, and edge to edge) around the top part of the hat.

If you like, you can add a small folded rectangle of muslin here to use as a nametag.

I usually put the seams in back, but be careful not to stack them up on each other, unless your machine is a bit more powerful than mine.

If you like, you can sew on some buttons or something to the good side, or you can finish right here. Stay warm!