Tutorial Tuesday - recycled wool elf hat

These are seriously cute, and seriously easy to make! It took me a while to come up with a pattern because I kept making the mistake of making a straight edge at the bottom. When the light bulb went on, and I rounded the bottom, it turned out how I wanted. Once your wool is felted (I like these lightly felted, just so it doesn't unravel when you cut), cut this shape (leaving a flat point at the top, about an inch long), a few pieces of felted seams, and a piece for your headband:



If you have a piece of ribbing to use, that's great, but if you don't you can cut a rectangle to the length you want your headband, and twice the width. Sew the 2 cut ends together, wrong side out...


then fold it in half, wrong sides in.


Now take your triangle and fold it in half, wrong sides out. You'll want your seams on the inside of the point, with the ends of them peeking out of the point a little. Now sew across the point a couple of times to secure the seams (tassels), then sew the side edges together.


Now you can sew your headband on, stretching as you go. It should look like below... wrong sides still out on the hat part, band on the inside. I suggest starting at the seams, and lining up the hat seam with the hat band seam.


Turn it right side out, and voila! ... cute hat! Wasn't that easy?



I love those foam heads you see in the pictures! I just picked them up recently to show what my hats look like on a head. When I went to get them, my son asked where we were going, and I told him "foam head shopping!". He would laugh and ask "No, really... where are we going?", and I would reply "to buy foam heads!", and he would laugh again. This went on the whole ride to the store, and he was tickled that we actually bought foam heads! No point to this story, but I smile now whenever I look at the foam heads :) He's totally bored in this picture, but isn't he cute?