Hats and a Belt

I finished!!! I had almost forgotten about this months sew-along over at Boy Oh Boy Oh Boy Crafts, but the last 2 days I made up for it.

The actual thing to sew was a pair of suspender shorts, but because I'm not a real suspender fan, and because my kids really needed some sun hats, I chose the option of sewing up the 'Let's Go Fishing Hat' and the 'Hold 'em Up Belt.' I got a little sew-happy and whipped up three hats:

I wish there was a smaller size--say 3-6 months. I'd love to sew up a fourth for my baby because I love how they turned out!

My kids had worn through a bunch of pants, so I cut off the legs to make shorts out of them. I cut up the cut-off pieces to make these hats. I have to admit, for my little girl's hat, I ended up using the whole pair of pants--leaving no shorts for her.

On the cuff of my daughter's pants there was this design embroidered, and I knew that I wanted that to be the focal point of her hat--nice and girly!

I had a lot of fun incorporating the existing seams and buttons into the hats. It added a lot of details to the hats that made them as fun as they are.

Oh, and to make things even better: they are reversible!

The contrast fabric I used was, for the boys' hats a quilting cotton that I found at Fabricland when I first started sewing. I actualy made curtains out of that fabric for the baby room. For my daughter's hat, I had some leftover fabric from this dress. I bought that from Fabric.com. It is another quilting cotton and it matched perfectly with the embroidery on top.

I also sewed up a belt for my daughter this evening, quickly. It's the 'Hold 'em Up Belt,' also from the Sewing for Boys book.

I used a fun quilting cotton that I received from a friend a couple of months ago. I'm not sure where it's from. I'll have to see if it fits her properly yet--I didn't measure her, but a pair of her pants as she was sleeping. But, either way, I like how it turned out. A very simple pattern or tutorial, since it guides you through the steps to make it rather than providing an actual pattern.

I've come to the conclusion that I really like this book. There are a lot of basic, fun patterns in here and I would definitely recommend it if you have boys, and even if you have girls!