Sunday, September 13, 2015

Bonny bunnet for the Scotsman

I really have not been doing a lot of sewing lately, apart from making a few simple skirts for Lizzie and as birthday gifts for her friends. My husband ('The Scotsman') has been bugging me to make him this hat ever since I showed it to him. It is from Issue 6 of One Thimble e-zine.



At first I thought I wouldn't be able to make him one due to the enormity of his noggin, but I measured it and luckily discovered that the largest size would accomodate his Sputnik-sized head.

Every time he asked me when I was going to make it, I'd say "Soon...I'm just in the middle of making something else right now". Fathers Day was last weekend, and I thought I should finally pull my finger out and make him one.

I always intended to make it out of this beautiful wool tartan that I've had in my stash for about 6 years. After all, he is a born and bred Scotsman, and a Scotsman's bunnet should be made from tartan.

I had to go and buy some very stiff stabiliser from Spotlight, but everything else was from my stash. The stabiliser was for the brim of the cap. I wanted to get the curve of the cap perfect, so I marked out my stitching line using my trusty seam gauge and some chalk.



The brim turned out beautifully- taking these extra little steps really does make a difference to the finished product! Attaching the sides to the top was very tricky as I had to do a lot of easing to get them to match up and the use of many pins was necessary.


I don't have a tailor's ham, and they really are a necessity when making a hat, so I improvised with one of Lizzie's toys. It worked a treat!



Come Fathers Day, my hubby was completely taken by surprise when he opened his gift. He loves it and it fits him perfectly!



I'm mostly very pleased with my pattern matching. There is a tiny little pleat in the back side seam, which I tried 3 times to fix, but the top part just did not want to ease into the side.



Sorry for the dodgy background. I took these just as we were leaving for our Fathers Day picnic.



I think he looks so handsome in it!