Wooly Winter Hats

A couple of months ago I pulled out the bin full of mittens, hats, and scarfs to see what would fit my kids this winter.  It turns out that both the boys have the same size head, so they needed new hats to keep warm this winter.  There are actually lots of free patterns and tutorials for kids winter hats, and I have to say the collective wisdom of the internet is awesome.  I used this free pattern from Martha Stewart that I've sewn up a few times before.  The hats are made of felted sweaters (I actually like my sweaters to still be a little stretchy, so I don't felt them quite as much as some) and lined with soft cotton velour.   

Now that they boys are old enough to have strong opinions about what they wear, I let them make most of the decisions about what their hats would look like.  Kid 2 picked out this dark blue knit and requested a light blue dinosaur.  Easy.  Kid 1 is going through a phase where he LOVES red, and his original idea was to have red and green stripes all throughout.  I couldn't find a sweater like that at my thrift store, and I didn't want to sew stripes together, so I settled for this.  He also drew this robot for me to add to the outside.  I had to make a few modifications, but it's pretty much exactly his design.  As much as it can be tricky to fill their requests, I like that they are getting more involved with the making process. 

 

The third hat was actually a gift for a friend.  He is the kind of kid that is always taking things apart, his favourite toy is his circuit board, and I wanted to make something that reflected his personality.  It occurred to me that an 'idea' or 'light bulb' hat would be perfect.  I felt like a genius for this.  Maybe I should make myself an 'idea' hat too!