Need a lift? Make a hat!

 Well, is there anyone out there that doesn't need a lift after the week (month, year, 4 long years) we've had here in the US? I know I definitely did -- so I escaped to my sewing room and attempted something light-hearted and fun.

My go-to for fun is always going to be a hat, and so I looked to a tried and true pattern - Vogue 9082, a collection of styles by Patricia Underwood. It's sadly OOP, but worth searching for if you too like hats that are easy to wear and very well drafted. 

I went with view B, small upturned brim.  Although the pattern recommends using velvet or velveteen for this style I went with a wool blend double-knit that I happened to have a large scrap of that needed using.  It's a stable knit with not much stretch, so it worked out just fine. It has a smooth side, and the reverse is just a bit more wooly looking, so I went with the reverse.

Although it looks somewhat navy in the photo, it's a dark grey. And while I like the 3 pink felted balls as trim I'm not entirely sure about using the white felt pinked circle as a base. That may get changed out. Sometimes though you need to go with what you have on hand.

I may have also engaged in a bit of retail therapy too -- also hat related. I'm always on the lookout for nice trims for hats -- those I make or those I buy -- and tried a few things from an Etsy vendor I haven't purchased from before -- Pink Swan Millinery  I was quite pleased with my order -- the items were nice (and as described) and even with pandemic shipping it arrived very quickly. 

Pictured are a bunch of red silk roses, a grey silk velvet rose, and a bunch of holly berries. I hope to use the roses on a summer straw (not as yet purchased) but as yet have no plans for the berries or grey rose.

And while it's not exactly a hat, I also took some time and used up another large scrap that was laying around to make a shower cap. I think that I originally ordered some PUL waterproof fabric to use as a backing for bibs. My youngest grandson is now a strapping almost 5-year old, so who can remember? In any event, just enough for a shower cap! There are plenty of tutorials on line, but I pretty much looked at them to get an estimate for how large a circle I needed to use to make a nice roomy cap. Ultimately I went with a radius of 11.5 inches which in retrospect could have been less. Although I don't have a lot of hair, I apparently do have a slightly larger head, and I hate tight or skimpy things around my head. So, one large circle cut from PUL, edges turned up to form a casing for elastic and voila -- a shower cap! I am leaving out all the naughty words I said while sewing the PUL and concentrating on my nice, new cap. Many thanks to past me for buying a Teflon foot for my machine though -- it was not the nicest stuff to stitch through. I didn't line it -- 1) the PUL was soft and smooth on the inner layer and 2) are you crazy?!