Spring, Spring, Spring

I've finished a new hat, and I have to admit, I'm quite pleased with how it all turned out.

Do you blame me?

Melon shirt, purple floral skirt, imitation pearl necklace, and brown leggings.
Yes, this girl is three years old, and insists on dressing herself.
Choosing my battles friends, I'm choosing my battles.  

As I mentioned earlier, I used this pattern as my jumping off point.  I had to adjust the brim from what the pattern gave, because when I followed the pattern exactly, the brim was waaay too wide and floppy for my taste.  Also, the pattern (for which I didn't check my gauge) gave me this size hat, instead of a hat sized for an adult woman.  This was fine with me, since I was shooting for a hat that would fit a "tween-ish" girl.  More on that later.

I used a creme cotton/ramie blend that I had reclaimed from a thrift store sweater sometime last year.  I definitely wanted to use cotton yarn, as I felt that acrylic or wool would add a lot of insulation to the hat, which would entirely defeat the purpose of making a spring sun hat in the first place.

I added a green adjustable crochet ribbon around the brim, to make it easier to change the hat size as necessary.  I also added the flower, being careful that when I sewed it on, I kept the ribbon free from any stitching (so that it would still be adjustable).

I also tried something a little new for me.  Following the instructions on the video below, I added some wire to the brim of the hat, giving it more form, and more adjustability.  

This is my first experience with the tutorials made by this woman, and I am really impressed and very appreciative of her taking the time to make such a helpful, quality tutorial.

If I get more involved in making hats that require wire, I might go ahead and invest in some millinery wire.  In the meantime though, I found a spool of red and white electrical wire at Lowes that seemed to be about the right consistency for me, once I had unbraided the white wire from the red, that is.  

At the moment, I'm working on another prototype of the same hat, but in my size.  If that goes well, I'll probably put some of them up for sale in the etsy shop, and I'll post the patterns (or at least my own adjustments from the Lion Brand pattern) here on the blog.  With any luck, that will be happening in the next week or so.

And that pretty much sums it all up.  Before I close this post, I just have to put up another picture of that hat (and Her Little Highness).  This shot is definitely an out-take of the little impromptu photo shoot we had yesterday afternoon, but it cracks me up enough that I feel it must be shared.

Goofy girl!