Newsboy Cap Part I

Happy Wednesday everyone! I know it's been like a week since I last posted. Lil' D started out with some evil mad allergies and our sleep/nap schedule was all outta whack so it made my days outta whack too!

Anyway on to more fun things! My cousin Kiersten is getting married in May and she going with a 20's theme for her wedding.  She is just the cutest thing! I hope she doesn't mind, but I am going to share one of her totally adorable engagement pictures! 
Ok they are all pretty darn cute! So Here is the website to go check them out!

Now of course I need to find something for me to wear and something for the hubs to wear to this wedding, but really at the moment I am more concerned about Lil' D! Last year I made him a pair of suspenders and a bow tie just for the heck of it.

Well I decided that they would be perfect to wear to the wedding, but he would be missing something...a newsboy cap! I searched online for a tutorial and found this, but it was for a man so it would be awfully big. I also found this, but it wasn't the type of newsboy cap I was thinking of. Lil' D already had a newsboy cap, but it was a plaid blue and red one. Which clearly wouldn't match his black and white bow tie and suspenders. But it would serve as a example for what I needed.  It was a little small so I made the pattern a little bigger. Now you'll have to stick with me here, as this is the first time I've made a pattern and tried to do something like this by myself. (As you will be able to see by the final product it turned out well, but I definitely need some more practice) The patterns are here and here.  Just so you readers know Lil' D is 17months. I am guessing this pattern will probably fit a 12-24 month old, but don't hold me to that number!

Items Needed for Newsboy Cap

1/3 yard outer fabric
1/3 lining fabric
some kind of strong material to use as the brim
fusible interfacing
coordinating thread 
sewing machine
iron     

As you can see by my pattern it says cut one on each large piece. You will need to cut one of your outer fabric and one of your lining. I was doing black and black so I just cut two of each. And of course you need to cut two brim pieces. I then decided I wanted to line the outer fabric with interfacing, so I cut a piece just a little smaller than my piece of fabric and followed the directions by ironing it on.

 

Now you are going to take the upside down U shape and the piece you put the interfacing on and put the right sides together matching up the center of the pieces, and then pinning down the sides where you will sew these pieces together. I pinned them down until the U shape started curving in. I then sewed around where I just pinned leaving maybe 1/4'' of a seam allowance.

Next, I pinned down the center and sewed that up.

 This next part is going to be difficult to explain so please bare with me. So this is clearly a before pic of all my sewing, but it will help me explain what you need to do.  You are going to have to pin the pin to the blue...

So you will pin this down and sew it, it is a little difficult to sew, but if I can do it so can you!!

Now you have the outer part of your hat!

Next, you are going to repeat the above steps with your lining fabric so it looks like you have two hats!

Onto the brim!
  Now for the actual brim I cut out three brim pattern shapes out of that plastic-y covering for your cheap frames. It's supposed to act like "glass" but in reality its just a clear plastic. I glued them together using spray adhesive, and then realized it needed to be a bit smaller than my brim fabric so I trimmed it down a bit. Take your two pieces of brim fabric and sew around the outside round edge leaving a 1/4'' seam allowance(or smaller if you can manage).  Next, I turned my fabric right side out and ironed it down. Just a little tip, be careful if you use the plastic stuff I used....I learned that it will MELT and it will melt quickly! Oooops!

Now slide that brim into your fabric! If it by chance doesn't fit you can do a little more trimming to the hard brim, not the fabric!
And that's it for today folks! It's a sunshiny 82 degrees outside. Not even Spring and we are starting to get the beginning of Summer weather.  I am going to take well rested Lil' D outside to play.  Check back tomorrow for Part II of this tutorial. I will show you how to put it all together!