A hat for summer

After childcare asked for a summer hat last week and gave back his knitted one, Austy and I trudged into the city with Austy's Dad on Saturday on the hunt for one. In our quick search in Myers, I was mildly frustrated yet again that they never have anything in his size. He's kind of between baby and child, the baby section is supposed to be for size 0-3 and the child section is for 3 onwards. But there is never anything beyond size 1 in the baby section, and it's rare to even find the size 1's. The couple of hats we did find that confessed to being for 50cm heads were actually not that big at all and wouldn't fit my little man's head. Except for one, a gorgeous Peter Rabbit one that was $19.95. But I couldn't bring myself to buy it since I will never see it while it fits (hats stay at childcare) and I already had bought him a spunky new Espirit one a few weeks earlier for wearing while he's NOT in childcare.

So what's a girl to do but whip one up herself. After a long afternoon of Austy screaming and throwing tantrums for 4hrs straight due to his current ear infection, and an assignment to submit as well as a thorough house clean, I decided I had to wind down. And what better way to do it than at the machine sewing concentric circles on a hat brim. I ended up staying up far too late, paying for it this morning and needing extra coffee, but the result is worth it:

I was going to do just a plain hat with the $3 piece of cotton drill (pattern was $4.50 but came with baby overalls patterns that will get used at some point) but I decided to make it a bit more interesting for Austy's sake. I might never see it, but Austy will. So I added the cute Michael Miller fabric lining and a small truck on the front. The trucks were spaced too close together on the fabric to get enough edge for a zigzag applique so I decided to do the freyed edge applique I see on lots of boys clothes these days. It's stitched on with a double straight stitch to stop it freying too far and the full effect won't be realised until it's been thrown in the washing machine.

It fits perfectly, even though the pattern said 12-18m and 48cm. Much better than a bought one as I didn't have to fork out for something I'll never see, and it fits him nicer anyway.

And my bag swap partner Bec has received her bag so I can now reveal my handiwork!

Oh, and my adorable boy wanted a tree photo too after he watched me taking the bag pics there... That's just one of his tree pics from the weekend right at the top of this post. I have a couple in my flickr and a few more on their way there. What a boy!