DIY Hat Tutorial

Hats for young babies are very straight forward to cut and stitch. They just require two pieces of fabric and a brim. I’ve made a lot of those with this tutorial.

However, I’ve always struggled when trying to make hats for older children and adults. Using the same method as the baby hats yields an ill-fitting product, in my opinion.

The hats I’ve bought seem to have this extra seam to keep them from looking too tight or loose around the seam.

I cracked the code for making seamed adult hats. Here’s how I made this cute fleece hat for myself.

Disclaimer: My pictures for this tutorial were taken in waning afternoon light. So they aren’t my best.

I started by taking a hat that fit me and folding it into quarters. I folded my fabric into quarters, too. (Kind of like you’re making a chain of paper dolls.)

This is a picture of the fabric folded into quarters:

I traced and then cut around the hat quarter. Here’s a visual of how your fabric should look. Kind of like a crown. Don’t worry. It’ll turn out a-ok!

Next, fold the fabric together, right sides together, matching up the points.

Sew up the side. Pivot your machine’s foot and then continue up the ‘triangle’ and stop when you get within 1/2” of the tip.

Then you’ll sew the opposite triangle. And finally, finish the last two triangular sides. Sew over the peak of the hat to close the tip.

Next, I added some blue fabric inside the brim. I did this so I wouldn’t have to hem the hat and also to add some warmth around the ears. I used the hem of a t-shirt so it would have a factory finished edge. I cut two 4” pieces to the width needed and sewed them with wrong sides together at the edges. (This way the seams will be on the inside of the hat and not touching your ears!)

I then pinned the blue inner brim to the base of the outer hat fabric with right sides together. I sewed it into place.

After it is sewn on, this is what the outside of the hat will look like.

Turn the hat wrong-side out. Fold the blue brim up toward the hat’s crown. Sew into place.

This is what the right side of the hat will look like. If you use fleece, it will help to hide the seam.

Here’s what the inside looks like:

I added a cute little flower. I love yellow and gray together, so I cut a few pieces of grey knit scraps into irregular shapes.

I stacked the shapes and sewed them together in the middle with embroidery floss.

That’s it! You can make a hat of any size using this tutorial. (All you need is a hat that already fits.)