Trying a Little Hat Making

 So, the next thing to make for the 2022 Start with a Scarf wardrobe is a hat.  I have the fabric; didn't have a hat pattern.  I pondered it a bit and decided I wanted a baker boy cap...think Barbara Streisand in the opening scenes of 'What's Up Doc?'...and hunted around online to see what I could find.

I found this you tube video on drafting your own cap:

Baker Boy Cap

It didn't look TOO hard, so I gave it a try.

1) All the given measurements are in metric.  Which is ok, in and of itself, but I only have one ruler that has centimeters on it...and half of the markings are half rubbed off.

2) She's not always really clear on landmarks...ie, which end of a line to measure from.  I watched the bit about drafting the brim pattern, which starts with a 10.7 cm x 10 cm rectangle...several times, pausing it over and over, and started over about three times.

3) The pattern for the band ended up being an inch smaller than my head measurement (no attempt is made to explain how to fit the hat to a different size), so I made the band longer and adjusted the width at the bottom seam of the hat pieces.

I made a 'practice' hat out of Brussel's Washer Linen ...a remnant from pants I'd made a year or two ago...just to make sure I was close on what I'd done.  Self-lined it, and used French Fuse on the shell, both band pieces, and both brim pieces.  I also cut a brim piece, minus seam allowances, from a plastic folder, to make sure the brim was stiff enough.

I held the plastic piece up to my forehead, and found that the inner curve didn't match the curve of my head at all...if I pushed the ends in, then it either flipped straight up or straight down.  I whacked around on it trying to get it to work so much that I had to scrap it and cut a new one....and for that one, I got a ball cap that fits fairly well and traced the inner curve of it.  It still didn't quite fit but I found that when I put the ball cap on I could put my thumbs under the band at the corners of the brim so ...maybe it wasn't as big a deal as I thought.  Moving on.

It was pretty straight forward sewing;  I found that if I started the curved seams in the middle and stitched them out to the top and bottom ends I got along much better.  Sewing 'with the grain'...in this case, wide to to tight, kept the bias seamlines from distorting.

I sewed the brim to the band/ band facing, stitched the band to the hat and then hand sewed the facing down.  Added the little stuffed ball on top and...I have a hat.

I'm still not quite happy with the way the brim lays...it is pretty low, rather than out straight.  The inner curve still is wider than my forehead.  Maybe I didn't have that 10.7 x 10 cm rectangle oriented right when I drafted it?  And I think the curve in the crown is a little too pronounced.  I did not do the topstitching mentioned in the video; my thread didn't match well enough, lol.

But it's not at all bad for a first go and I won't feel awkward wearing it.  I'll add my tweaks and I'll watch that bit on drafting the brim a couple of more times. Not sure if I will make the final cap or if I'll try another practice one.

We'll see how brave I feel at the time.