With winter dragging on, I was desperate for a new warm winter hat, but didn’t fancy knitting one. I wanted an instant result, so I thought I would try making one from an old wool dress I had been planning to recycle. I sketched out a basic hat shape on dot and cross tracing paper for a pattern and added a 1cm seam allowance. Placing it on the bottom of the wool dress, double thickness, I cut both pieces in one go. The hat was assembled by stitching around the curved edge, right sides together. It really was as simple as that. I ironed the seams flat, as best I could, with a cotton cloth between the fabric and the iron et voila. Using the already finished edge of the dress as the base of the hat made it so easy, no need to add a band or finish the edge. I made it very oversized as I prefer my hats floppy. I am very happy with this result. It looks a bit like a tea cosy….but I love that.

One thing I could have done to improve this make, would have been to felt the wool first to prevent unravelling. I didn’t here as the wool content of this fabric was low, so I didn’t think it would work.
However, I recently acquired a pile of old 100% wool jumpers to recycle, so I intend to felt them and try again. Check out my felted jumper stash below, should get a few hats out of that lot.

I was originally planning to share my latest make with you today, a Grainline Alder Shirt Dress, but unfortunately ran out of thread before I could finish the button holes. Living on an island doesn’t lend itself to last minute haberdashery shopping, so unfortunately I only have a sneak peak of the nearly finished product for you. Happy Sunday.