sun hat pattern

Hi all,

I just came back from vacation w/ a nasty sunburn and I've been
thinking about sewing my own sun hat, since hats at the stores are
always too small for my evidently enormous head. Does anyone have
some tips on how to construct one? I've seen a couple of patterns,
but again the standard head measurements won't fit - I'm wondering if
I should buy a pattern then alter dramatically, or just try it on my
own..?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions/comments,
G

G wrote:

Hi all,

I just came back from vacation w/ a nasty sunburn and I've been
thinking about sewing my own sun hat, since hats at the stores are
always too small for my evidently enormous head. Does anyone have
some tips on how to construct one? I've seen a couple of patterns,
but again the standard head measurements won't fit - I'm wondering if
I should buy a pattern then alter dramatically, or just try it on my
own..?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions/comments,
G

Dear G! You're not alone! I have exactly the same problem (big head and fair,
red-head's skin)!

I've made sunhats for my DD (who is also going to be a big-head when she's
grown-up), but haven't done one for myself - yet! I expect I'll only have to
enlarge the chilren's pattern enough so that the circumference will fit my own.
I'll make a few prototypes from calico first, I think!

The technique is a little fiddly, but if you're patient the results are worth
it. A lot depends on the pattern you use. The one I chose was for a shallowish,
flat-topped crown (ie. had an oval-shaped piece on top of the head) and a wide
brim. You can also get ones that piece the crown together in four to eight
triangular-shaped bits (baseball hats usually work on this principle - they
'cup' the head rather than standing up from it). Either way, the hardest part is
in attaching the brim to the crown. You're fitting two circular outlines
together and their curvature is not exactly the same. The things to remember
a

1. *Make sure* you pin the bits together *along the sewing line*, not the edge!
It's an easy assumption to pin the *edges* of the fabric together and this will
give you a severe headache: there's no way you'll ease the brim into the crown
piece because its edge is longer! Pin along the sewing line (chalk it in with
dressmaker's pencil or white coloured pencil - that makes it a bit easier) and
patiently ease the bits together.

2. Stay-stitch around the completed crown and the brim (ie about midway between
the edge and the stitching line). There'll be a good bit of bias stretch in your
circular pieces and they could stretch a lot as you handle them. Stay-stitching
will ensure this is minimised and will prevent there being too much ease.

3. Relax! If you get all fraught with tension, it'll never work. A good idea is
to divide the brim and crown pieces into quarters by placing a pin at each
quarter mark. Match these pinned points together (ie brim to crown) and then
ease in the distance between them. In this way, you won't wind up with a heap of
fullness in one place (thus making you look like a potato head!)

Other bits of advice...

You stiffen the brim by ironing in some heavy interfacing. You can interface
just one piece (usually the top) or both top and bottom pieces. If you want
*really* stiff brims, you could use buckram (a very heavy, old-fashioned
interfacing that you sew in). Sometimes, it's enough to simply stitch around and
around the brim at quarter inch intervals.

A nice idea is to put in a heavy piping at the edge of the brim, or to pipe the
crown/brim seam and top crown seam.

I once made my DD a Bananas In Pyjamas outfit for preschool. It was a simple
shirred dress with white cotton cord shoulder ties and a banana-yellow hem
insert. I made the matching sunhat with yellow piping around the blue/white
striped hat brim and more at the top of the crown. This piping was made with the
thickest piping cord available (1/4") and it gave the brim excellent body! The
hat could be scrunched up as only kids can scrunch, yet the stiffish piping
always brought it back into shape!

Another cute idea is to make the hat reversible by using hand stitching
techiques to hide seamlines. This takes longer to do, but you wind up with a
really clever hat!

Also, you need to think carefully about the fabric you're going to use. Can it
be laundered? Will you need to shrink it a lot before use (some cottons can
shrink ferociously!)? Will it be too hot? Too heavy? Will it breathe? Will it
wrinkle and need to be ironed?

I once tooled myself a *beootiful* hat from thin calf leather. It was based on
the Akubra 'Snowy River' style and featured clusters of gum leaves with little
owls peering from a tree-hole. It was laced artfully together with triple
cordovan stitch. It took ages to make and the idea was to shield me from the hot
Oz sun while attending Pony Club instruction days.

BUT...

I had not *weighed* the considerably large piece of leather from which I cut the
hat pieces! It weighed an imperial ton! After an hour of wearing it, my neck
began to concertina back into my body! While the hat kept my (large and stupid)
head cool at all times, the cost to my cervical vertebrae was just too great! It
hangs on my wall now, still very beautiful but completely useless. It
*pretends* to be a hat, but is really a wall-hanging... :-(

Anyway, hat making isn't hard - I only hope to save you some angst by listing my
own mistakes! ;-D

HTH,
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

G wrote:
Hi all,

I just came back from vacation w/ a nasty sunburn and I've been
thinking about sewing my own sun hat, since hats at the stores are
always too small for my evidently enormous head. Does anyone have
some tips on how to construct one? I've seen a couple of patterns,
but again the standard head measurements won't fit - I'm wondering if
I should buy a pattern then alter dramatically, or just try it on my
own..?

You can download Wild Things! from Wild Ginger, free, from
http://www.wildginger.com/wildthings!/
It includes a pattern for a sunhat and you can specify the size you want.

Sally

I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected,
both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could
be a thesis paper!
meg

Meg Street wrote:

I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected,
both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could
be a thesis paper!
meg

Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the
wonders of antihistamine! =:-0
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

PS. I dunno about the red hair gene! My hair was flame-coloured when I was a
child. It has grown darker over the years and is now dark, dark mahogany (can
only see the red highlights in strong sunlight). My son (nearly thirty) is on
the same path as me: his bright red hair is darkening underneath (and thinning
on top, poor kid!). My daughter (nearly ten) has a mane of coppery tresses all
the way down to her bum - I'm assuming it's going to darken too and none of us
will have red hair in the end. It doesn't seem fair!

I've spent most of my life being noticed for my red hair, choosing a green
wardrobe and having ferocious sunburns, courtesy of the skin. Now, while I still
*think* of myself as a red-head, people look at me very oddly when I say so
('But *your* hair's not red!') Well, it was for thirty years! Snif! And my poor
boy is sadly waving goodbye to his crowning glory and adjusting to a life
without any hair a-tall! Isn't it *sad*?

PPS. My hairdresser told me that red-heads have more hairs on their heads than
other people. I would agree with this: my hair is extremely thick and long (not
particularly nice hair, though - my daughter's is: hers is silky and glossy
while mine's bitter and twisted! LOL!)

Trish Brown wrote:
I dunno about the red hair gene! My hair was flame-coloured when I was a
child. It has grown darker over the years and is now dark, dark mahogany
(can
only see the red highlights in strong sunlight).

One word: henna. It gives lovely red highlights and makes your hair
wonderfully glossy. People comment on my hair and it's all down to henna. It
won't lighten it but it will make the red highlights stronger.

Sally

I know how to make that mahogany hair red again!!!

As long as Clairol is in business I will never be grey!!


"Trish Brown" wrote in message
...
Meg Street wrote:

I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected,
both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could
be a thesis paper!
meg

Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy
the
wonders of antihistamine! =:-0
--
Trish {|:-}
Newcastle, NSW, Australia

PS. I dunno about the red hair gene! My hair was flame-coloured when I was
a
child. It has grown darker over the years and is now dark, dark mahogany
(can
only see the red highlights in strong sunlight). My son (nearly thirty) is
on
the same path as me: his bright red hair is darkening underneath (and
thinning
on top, poor kid!). My daughter (nearly ten) has a mane of coppery tresses
all
the way down to her bum - I'm assuming it's going to darken too and none
of us
will have red hair in the end. It doesn't seem fair!

I've spent most of my life being noticed for my red hair, choosing a green
wardrobe and having ferocious sunburns, courtesy of the skin. Now, while I
still
*think* of myself as a red-head, people look at me very oddly when I say
so
('But *your* hair's not red!') Well, it was for thirty years! Snif! And my
poor
boy is sadly waving goodbye to his crowning glory and adjusting to a life
without any hair a-tall! Isn't it *sad*?

PPS. My hairdresser told me that red-heads have more hairs on their heads
than
other people. I would agree with this: my hair is extremely thick and long
(not
particularly nice hair, though - my daughter's is: hers is silky and
glossy
while mine's bitter and twisted! LOL!)

Maybe this thread will finally kick me into gear. I copied
a Gilligan hat, made myself a wardrobe of machine-washable
hats that can be crammed into a pocket, wrote up
instructions for drafting the brim -- under "Pattern
Drafting: a circle with a hole in it" in _Rough Sewing_ --
and that was as far as I got.

Doesn't help that I plan to make a cylinder-shaped crown on
the next hat -- you don't need instructions to make one of
those.

I don't find the brim a bit difficult to attach to the
crown. I mark the crown and the brim in eight places, put
the crown inside the brim, pin, stitch a little outside the
stitching line, then pin in a strip of selvage sewn into a
circle that just fits my head to the other side of the brim,
sew on the stitching line, turn the sweatband to the inside
to cover the raw edges, hand-sew it into place. (Machine
stitching works fine for digging-in-the-garden hats.)

The crown itself is usually cut on the crossgrain
(duh! Perhaps the straight grain doesn't *always* have to
run up and down. furious cogitation ensues),
so it stretches a bit, so it's only the sweatband that holds
the hat to the correct size. more cogitation When I get
around to making that black cotton velvet hat, I think I'll
cut the crown a little too big and ease it onto the brim, so
as to create a slightly-poufy effect. Or, perhaps, I'll
make it as a brimmed pillbox . . .


Joy Beeson
--
http://home.earthlink.net/~joybeeson/ -- needlework
http://home.earthlink.net/~beeson_n3f/ -- Writers' Exchange
joy beeson at earthlink dot net

Trish Brown wrote:
Meg Street wrote:

I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected,
both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could
be a thesis paper!
meg

Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the
wonders of antihistamine! =:-0

DH has red hair, but I have the hayfever thankfully only mild most of
the time. Looks like DS will start out as strawberry blonde, but will
probably darken up as he gets older. DH's hair is a really beautiful
copper colour and wavy, I'm jealous, but it won't suit me :-(

--
Melinda
http://cust.idl.com.au/athol

melinda wrote:

Trish Brown wrote:
Meg Street wrote:

I think being a red head and having a large head size must be connected,
both my husband & son are red-haired with large heads. Hmm, this could
be a thesis paper!
meg

Any asthma among your family members? Hayfever? My kids and I *so* enjoy the
wonders of antihistamine! =:-0

DH has red hair, but I have the hayfever thankfully only mild most of
the time. Looks like DS will start out as strawberry blonde, but will
probably darken up as he gets older. DH's hair is a really beautiful
copper colour and wavy, I'm jealous, but it won't suit me :-(

I have the skin to go with that, and natural copper and gold highlight,
but over all, my hair looks dark brown (with grey bits!). Mine isn't
the dead white skin and blue eyes look of the Norse ancestry, but the
dark eyed celt crossed with pict look!
--
Kate XXXXXX
Lady Catherine, Wardrobe Mistress of the Chocolate Buttons
http://www.diceyhome.free-online.co.uk
Click on Kate's Pages and explore!