Designing and Making Children's Hats and Caps Part 3

We are designing and making a selection of children's hats in this series of multiple blogs. In Part 1 we planned the concept. In part 2 we designed the pattern for the basic hat. Now, in Part 3, we will take the design of the basic hat one step further and develop it into variants. The first variant we will look at is a beret.

Designing the Pattern for the Round Beret
This beret can be made with or without the cap. The cap is attached separately and can simply be left out. It it is the same cap that was used in the Flat Top Cap and we will not redesign this part of the pattern. To start with, I glued two A4 pages together to give me a longer sheet. I then marked the length of the head measurement of the child I am designing the hat for. I added 3 cm for seam allowance (2 x 1,5cm) and trimmed the excess. If the beret is to be constructed without a cap, the headband can simply be folded. If the cap is going to be added, you will need to cut two headbands. I decide to keep the headband as one very wide band. It is easy enough to fold and cut the headband when cutting the fabric. Just remember to add 1,5 cm seam allowance for the cut side when you lay out the pattern. Cut the pattern out when done. I made the pattern 19 cm wide.

It is time to move on to the lid of the beret. Trace the lid of the Flat Cap on a sheet of paper. We need a second one to cut up for the purpose of designing the beret. Keep one safe with the previous pattern and keep the second one at hand to be cut up when we design the ring for the beret.

Measure 1,5 cm seam allowance to the inside of the circle.

Draw the seam allowance by connecting the marks. This will make the circle smaller than the measurement of the head. We will overcome this in the construction of the beret.

Decide how wide you would like the beret to be and mark this off on an A3 paper (2 A4 papers stuck together).

Draw a circle connecting your marks.

Cut out the beret lid.

Now we need to design the beret ring. Trace the beret lid on an A3 sized paper.

We will need to cut a hole for the head in the ring. We will use the cap lid for this purpose. We made a second copy of this pattern earlier and we will now use this spare one to cut smaller.

Cut along the inside line (the line with the 1,5 cm seam allowance to the inside of the cap.

You can discard the ring and keep only the solid section of the pattern. This is the pattern that we will use to shape the hole for the head.

Place this pattern on the traced beret lid. Remember that a beret is traditionally always skew, meaning shorter on one end than the other. Place your 'hole' so that it reflects that, i.e. NOT in the middle. Trace the hole.

Cut out both the outer circle as well as the inner circle of the beret ring.

We have now constructed the three pattern parts that make up a beret. Let's convert it to paper that can be scanned and converted to pdf. The first thing is to redraw the headband on two A4 papers. Allow for an overlap of the paper where it will need to be glued together once printed.

Prepare the paper for the lid. This first step is to create the overlap where the paper will need to be flued together once printed.

Slide the two sheets on top of each other, lining the overlap lines up perfectly. Trace the beret lid carefully making sure to keep the bottom pages in position.

Repeat the same steps for the ring. First, create the overlap and then trace the ring.

Do not forget to add all the necessary information to the pattern pieces. This is essential. Right at this moment you are very familiar with the pieces, but that will not necessarily be the case a few months or years from now when you want to use it again.

For more crafty ideas and great products, visit APrettyTalent.com.

Remember to keep nurturing your TALENT for making PRETTY things.
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