Sewing Tuesday: Miss Kitty's Top Hat.

Welcome to Sewing Tuesday!
I'm going to show you how to make Miss Kitty's Top Hat, here she is modelling it for us.

You will need:

• About 14cm by 20cm piece of felt, any colour you like.
• Thread to match your felt.
• A pencil.
• About 30cm of ribbon, any colour you like.
• Scissors.
• Some craft glue.
• A ruler. (I usually don't believe in rulers but today I'm making an exception)
• A needle.
• A pin.
• A large circle to draw around - I've used a normal sized roll of sticky tape.
• A small circle to draw around - I've used a mini sized roll of sticky tape.

Read through all of the instructions before you start. That usually helps to stop things going wrong.

Step 1.

With your pencil, draw around the large circle twice on the felt. Make sure you draw them right up in the corner like me. You'll need the rest of the felt later.



Step 2.

Cut out the large circles and draw around the smaller circle in the middle of them.



Step 3.

Cut out the smaller circle that you have drawn, snip in to the middle like in the picture above to make it easier. Use small snips to cut out his circle, it's a bit fiddly so be careful and ask for help if you need it.
They should look like mine below, we'll be calling these the brim circles from now on.

Step 4.

To find out how big to make the main body of our hat so it fits snugly against the brim circles, we need to do a tiny bit of maths. 

We want to know the circumference of the inner circle. Look up circumference in a dictionary if you need to.

Fold one of the brim circles in half and measure the size of the inner arch. This is the diameter of the inner circle. The diameter of mine is 4cm, yours might be the same or different.
We need this measurement do our sum.
Here's the sum, if you aren't sure about maths, get someone to help you, also, use a calculator!

4 (or your diameter in cm) x 3.14 = 12.56

So, the circumference is 12.56cm. I'm going to round it up to 13cm. 13 is my favourite number, how about that! Round yours up too, maybe even add on a whole centimetre, better to have it a little too big than too small.



Step 5.

Draw a rectangle using the rounded up circumference measurement you just took (mine was13cm). It can be any height you like, although probably not longer than your middle finger, for easy sewing later on. Cut this rectangle out.

Draw a line 1cm from the bottom of the rectangle all along the length.



Step 6.

Draw around the smaller circle once more on what's left of your felt. Cut this out. This is your hat top.
The rest of the felt you can use another time for something small.

You should have all of these pieces:

• 2 x Brim circles
• 1 x hat top
• 1 x main body rectangle

You're about half way through!




Step 7.

With the pencil line on the inside, pin the main body rectangle to make a roll shape like mine.

Slide the brim circle over the main body roll. If you are really lucky you might have guessed the exact size and it might fit really well. More likely, you will need to take out the pin and let the roll gently out until it fits snug against the brim with no gaps. Replace your pin, take off the brim circle.



Step 8.

Now you can sew up the hat main body.
I use my left hand to hold the felt and my right hand to hold the needle. I'm right handed and I feel like I get more control over my needle with my right hand. You might be the same as me or different.
Starting with your knot so it's tucked out of sight on the inside, sew with small stitches along the join. I used over stitch as that'll hold down the edge so it can't flap around.



Step 9.

Cut slits in the main body up to the 1cm line that you marked on earlier. Be careful you don't cut through your stitches or you might have to start again.

Place your hat so that it's standing with the flaps splayed out. Lower the brim circle on to the main body. Read the instructions on your glue. Dot the glue on to the flaps. If your glue is like mine, you might have to wait a little while after dotting it on, until it gets tacky, before you can do the next part.

Squash down the brim circle so that it sticks to the glued flaps. It's starting to look like a hat!



Step 10. 

Turn your hat over so that it's sitting upside down. Put a thin layer of glue on the other brim circle and put it on top, sandwiching the flaps inside, this will hide any messy bits and make your hat look really neat.

Wait a bit for the glue to dry. You could go outside for a while maybe. I pinned mine while it dried, just in case.
Sew all around the edge of the brim circles with over stitch. This will hold them together at the edges and the stitching can look pretty too. Take your time, it's worth going slowly with this part.



Step 11.

This can be fiddly, so be patient with yourself and your hat.
Hold your hat like I am in the photo above.
Start by putting the needle through the top circle, hiding your knot on the underside. Put the top circle on to the top of your hat. Go in through the body and up through the top circle like I am in the picture. If you find this hard, try holding it a different way or ask for help. Nobody minds you asking them for help if you ask nicely.



Step 12.

Yahoo! The last step.
Tie the ribbon around the hat in a pretty bow.
You're done!
Hey, share a photo of your hat with me, I'd love to see it.
If you have any questions, leave me a comment and I'll answer them. Or if you would just like to say hello, then that's great too.
Thanks for reading!
Holly.