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One of my favorite things to give as baby gifts are crocheted hats. There are a lot of really, really cute free hat patterns out there and even more you can buy pretty inexpensively on Etsy or Ravelry.
Typically I buy an outfit that will fit the kiddo during the cold months and I try to find clothes for between 6 months and a year because I assume they already have a lot of clothes for the earlier months. Then I find a pattern that will in some way match the outfit. For example, I once bought a pink and gray fleece outfit with a penguin on it and made a pink and gray penguin hat. Another time I found a cute monster outfit and created a monster hat in matching colors. I especially like baby hats with ear flaps. The cuteness factor shoots up for me when you include ear flaps.
Now, I think that’s a great gift in itself. But if I’m giving this to a child who lives in a state with pretty cold winters, I like to kick it up a notch and line the hat so it’s extra warm. I love to crochet, but the holes make hats less warm than I’d like. It’s really easy to line a hat and you can use this technique for any size hat AND it works great even with ear flaps.
You can use regular fleece which is very soft and comes in a ton of colors and prints. My preference is to line it in a sherpa fleece which is really snuggly and very warm.
You can watch the tutorial here:
Supplies:
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a crocheted hat - I used this pattern
matching thread
Sherpa fleece – enough so your hat fits on top when your fabric is folded over. Joann and Hobby Lobby also carry it.
optional: sewing machine
First, crochet your adorable hat. I make each hat a size larger than I actually want it to be. This leaves room for the fluffy lining so the hat won’t be too tight. I used this pattern because I think it’s really, really cute. The yarn is I Love This Yarn in Ivory and Black. I used this tutorial for the eyes and hot glued them on top of a piece of felt that I free handed so you could see the eyes themselves. I chose not to use safety eyes as called for in the pattern because it’s a no-no to use safety eyes or buttons for children under the age of 3 as it could pose a choking hazard.
My hat is for my cousin’s baby born in February so I made it in a 9-12 month size hoping it will actually fit at 6-9 months in about October/November.
Lay down your lining fabric with the fluffy “right” sides together.
Place the hat down on top of the back side of the lining fabric.
Using a fabric marker, trace just outside the hat itself. Don’t draw on your hat, just the lining. Draw an extra ½ inch at bottom/brim.
If your hat has ear flaps, trace around those too.
Next, use pins inside your traced area to secure both pieces of fabric together.
Leaving it pinned together cut along the line you drew.
Sew around the outside edge at ¼ inch.
DO NOT sew along the bottom/brim. If you don’t have a sewing machine, you could also use a running stitch, needle and matching thread to hand sew the edge.
If the edge of your sherpa gets caught under your sewing machine foot you can lift up the foot every few inches to get the fabric to lay flat.
I sewed this line and then sewed another line about 1/8 to the left of it to make sure I had all the fluffy stuff attached. You don’t need to add the second line of stitches. Just use a slightly bigger seam allowance to make sure all the fluffy stuff is secure.
Take out the pins and leaving the wrong sides out, squish the lining into the hat and shift it around. Make sure it is all the way in and line up the seam you made with the sides of the hat.
Using pins or clips, roll the unfinished edge of the lining about 1/4 inch toward the outside of the hat and line the new edge up just below the crocheted edge of the hat. Clip it in place.
Continue rolling the unfinished edge and clipping the lining in place around the inside of the hat. It works best if, for the first few clips at least, you work in opposites. Pin the right side and then the left, rotate the hat and pin the new right and the new left. If you are lining ear flaps, fold the lining edge and line it up near the bottom of each ear flap.
With a needle and thread that matches the outside of the hat (the fluffy stuff on the inside will hide most all of the thread), use a running stitch to sew the lining to the edge of the sherpa. You can watch a tutorial for this here.
I put both ends of a piece of thread into the eye of the needle. Insert your needle from the inside of the hat making sure you are going through all three layers of fabric – the lining, the folded portion of lining and the hat itself. Push the needle through to the outside but don’t pull it all the way through – leave a loop on the inside just on this first stitch.
Move over 1/4 inch to the right and insert the needle going from the outside in. Go through the loop you left on the inside with your needle before pulling the thread taut. This knots the thread in place.
Move 1/4 inch to the right and push the needle outward and then moving 1/4 inch right, push the needle back in. Continue around the hat until you get back to where you started.
When you’re done, or run out of thread, knot your stitches by creating a loop on the inside and pushing the needle through it as you did to start.
Finish off by knotting your thread using a loop and trim your threads.
Your hat is finished and not only does it look great, it will keep someone really warm!
Since baby's outgrow clothes so very fast, I like to attach this care tag to my handmade items so parents know about what age the item should fit. The tag is double sided with care instructions on the back so they also know how to care for the item. You can subscribe below to receive the printable download, or if you are already subscribed you can find the tag in my Resource Library. The password is included at the bottom of all my newsletters.
I like to use a piece of yarn to attach it to the side of the hat or other crocheted item.
Happy crafting!
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