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Friday, November 27, 2015

Tutorial on a witch hat


You will need a piece of fabric of your choice about 20cm x 30cm and a matching piece of lining with the same measurements, a piece of paper and a pencil to do the calculations and the pattern, a tracing wheel, copy paper, scissors, pinking shears, tweezers, a tape measure, a pair of dividers, pins, a sewing needle, a sewing machine, feathers, tulle and anything else you would like to put on the ready hat to decorate it.

We start with measuring the head circumference of our doll.



I used a Fashion Royalty doll whose head circumference is 10.5cm. 

To be able to draw the pattern we need to know the radius (r) of the head circumference. To get r, we divide the head circumference:

(U) by 2 π (6,28). r = 10,5cm / 6,28 = 1,7cm.
In the picture below you can see the construction of the pattern for the hat’s brim.


The hat’s height (h) will be 10cm in our case. In the next picture you see the construction of the top part of the hat.


The next thing to do is to cut out the patterns of the brim and the top.


We only need half of the brim because we will cut it from double laid fabric. Pin the pattern on the wrong side of the fabric as shown in the next picture. Make sure there is about 0.5 to 1cm space all around it for the seam allowance.


We will need the top part of the hat only once, that’s why we pin it on the right side of a single layer of the fabric.


Cut all around it with about 1cm seam allowance.


To mark the seam lines on the wrong side of the fabric we use a tracing wheel and copy paper.


Then we repeat the whole process with the lining.


Pin the two brim parts of the lining together as shown in the next picture.


And stitch with the sewing machine.


Do the same with the brim parts of the main fabric.


 Press the seam allowance open with the iron. Cut in the seam allowance of the inner circle of the brim. Pin the brim to the top part (the right sides of the fabric are facing each other).


Stitch.


Repeat with the lining:



Press the seam allowance open and cut it back with the pinking shears.


Pin the lining to the main fabric all around the outer circle of the brim.



Stitch.


Cut back the seam allowance with the pinking shears.


Turn the fabric to the right side and press the outer circle of the brim.


Turn it inside out again and pin, following the seam lines, from the top of the lining to the top of the main fabric.


Stitch, but leave a little hole in the area of the brim lining.


Parallel to the seam at the top part of the lining, stitch a second seam at about 2mm distance.


Cut a piece of the thin wire as long as the top part of the hat (10cm in our case). Bend back the edges of the wire, so they don’t cut through the lining and bring the wire in the little tunnel between the two parallel seams.



 Lock the wire in place with two stitches by hand on both ends.
Cut back the seam allowance at the main fabric’s top part as shown in the next picture.


Pull the top of the main fabric through the little hole with the tweezers and turn the hat right side out.




Close the hole with some stitches by hand.



Press gently – and be proud of the cute little hat you just made!


Because of the wire hidden inside the lining you are able to shape the hat’s top as you wish.



Now you can let your imagination run wild to decorate the hat! I used some feathers and little pieces of tulle.


Just stitch or even glue them on the hat.