Easy fleece hat

My brother requested some fleece hats made like one he already had that was getting old. I searched around online and found a couple of tutorials. I made one from fleece I had in my stash as a practice hat. Good thing, because it was very big. I made a couple hats smaller, then three more even smaller. The smallest fit me well, but we’ll see when we get feedback from my bro.

old hat, new fleece (I ordered this online)

For the practice hat, I cut a rectangle 24”x15”.

I folded it in half the long way, right sides together. I marked 2” from the top. I don’t like to use pins unless I absolutely have to, and clips are great for this project. I sewed from the bottom to the mark 2” from the top.

NOTE: I always use a walking foot and ziggzag stitch when sewing strechy fabrics on my home machine (Brother CS6000i).

I marked at 2” all the way across the top and cut to that mark (both sides) at 1” intervals. I folded up the bottom at 1” and used my clips to hold it.

I turned the hat right side out.

I gathered the top by holding it near the seam and pulling it in in 2” folds.

I tied a scrap strip of 1” by 5” around the gather and pulling it as tight as I could. I trimmed the edges and ….

done! I folded the bottom up because this hat was huge on me. The next round I started with 24” by 15” rectange, which was still big on me. Then I made three hats with a 20” by 12” rectagle and that fit me perfectly.