Project – DJ Lance Hat

This week, the Iron Craft Challenge was based on Halloween.

I made a little ‘costume’ that my husband may or may not decide to wear.

DJ Lance on Yo Gabba Gabba, and the fabulous Jack Black.

The hat I did was super simple.
Wanna make your own?

Supplies:

• Orange fur
• white cardboard
• orange felt
• (orange thread)
• fabric or tacky glue

Tools:

• measuring tape
• fabric scissors
• crafting scissors

(side bar: I have scissors that only cut fabric in the house. They are beautiful Ginger’s in their own case. And they do not cut anything else. I even bent my own rules a little bit by letting them cut this fur!
Then I have assorted ‘craft’ scissors for cutting everything else. Mine are some nice Fiskars. I’m not very picky about them, so they can cut sticky, gluey things, and just be washed off.
Do you separate your scissors?)

• sewing machine

First, measure your head around where you want the hat to sit. (so not just around your forehead like a head band, but around the back of your head down by your ears.)
Take you number, and add about 3-4 inches. 2 inches will be seam allowance, and 1-2 inches of ease.
Cut a long strip of the fur. Mine is 28 inches long, and 9 inches high.

Fold the strip in half the long way, and sew up the back seam.
Then sew the top seam in a gentle arc.
There is no real shape to this hat. And clearly it is roomy on top, but it is neither pointy, nor is it a chef’s hat. So simply round off the corners at the front and back, and you should have a bit of a poof at the top.

One tip I can offer when sewing fur: before you fold and pin, take a moment to ‘push’ the fur “in” away from the seam. (so if you are running it through your machine with the seam allowance on the right, and the body of the hat on the left, as you face your machine, push all the fur in and to the left.) That way the fur will fluff and hide the seam. Otherwise, the fur is pulled into the seam allowance, which isn’t a big huge deal, it just distracts me a tiny bit.

For the star, I just cut out an irregular 14 point star out of white cardboard. And an irregular 5 point star out of orange felt, and glued them together. My little helper called these the “sun” and the “star”.

I have to say, this hat is pretty funny.
There was no time for a photo shoot with a model before the posting date. Sorry. Stay tuned though, because this hat will be in our ‘bag of tricks’ for years to come! I will likely capture everyone in the house trying it on!
Happy Halloween!