Tuesday, October 13, 2009

easy knit baby hats

The Three Birdies are excited to announce the arrival of the newest little birdie! Jessica & hubby welcomed baby Grayson on Thursday night. He's just as cute as his brothers, and I'm sure we'll be using him to model our creations in the near future. Stacy and I are so happy for their little family. Congrats, Jess!

To celebrate our newest arrival, here's a quick tutorial on a simple bear baby hat made out of soft knit fabric. We love that you can so easily personalize them or match them to an outfit with just a scrap of fabric on the ears!


Baby Bear Knit Hat Tutorial

Supplies:
*Knit fabric
*Scrap of contrasting cotton or knit fabric
*Sewing machine or serger
*Needle and thread

1. To get started, cut two pieces of the knit fabric in a shape similar to the picture below. These two pieces are approximately 7 inches wide at the bottom and about 7 1/2 inches tall. Next cut two ear pieces out of both the knit and the contrasting fabric (for a total of four pieces). Our ears are about 1 1/2 inches wide and 1 1/2 inches tall. Feel free to improvise here on the ears. If you want long bunny ears, then cut longer pieces or in a triangle shape for kitty ears. This is where your creativity can come into play.


2. Sew one patterned fabric ear piece and one knit ear piece right sides together along the rounded sides, but not the flat side.



3. Turn the ear pieces inside out so they look like this. You may need to snip notches in your curved part of the ear to help it turn better and lay flatter.


4. Next, we will pinch the bottom of the ears together like so.


5. Sew the ear along the flat side to help keep the shape of the fold. You really only need about three to four stitches.



6. Now, open your ears up and sandwich them between the two large pieces of knit fabric. Pin in place.


7. Sew or serge all the way around the curved edge of the hat. Turn your hat inside out. Roll the bottom of the hat up twice and, using a needle and thread, sew the roll in place by placing two stitches on each side of the hat on the seam


Aren't these sweet? They would be perfect paired with a onesie with a shape appliqued on the front in a matching fabric, like these. These are both simple but darling baby gifts you can make ahead and have on hand the next time a new little one comes along!

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19 Comments

19 Responses to “easy knit baby hats”

Tretha said...

Hey!

I was wondering what I was to make with all the scrap knit fabrics I had. Thanks for the great tutorial!

Tretha

Beverly said...

How cute are those hats??!!

Anne said...

These are so stinkin' cute!! I'm adding this to my "must sew" list. I don't have a baby around the house any more, but I could make up a batch to keep on hand as emergency baby shower gifts. Thanks for the great tutorial!

I posted a link to your tutorial on Craft Gossip Sewing:
http://sewing.craftgossip.com/tutorial-bear-baby-hat-from-knit-fabric/2009/10/13/

--Anne

Jen said...

So cute! I'm totally making one!

Unknown said...

So awesome! Are you girls going to be around the Seattle area at Christmas? I'm from there and I'm going to be visiting my family! Wanna get coffee??

Hailey said...

This is too cute. Good job!

krisz said...

Those are super cute!Thank you for the great tut!

Darcy said...

How did you know this was EXACTLY what I wanted to make today? I think one of the birdies is a mind reader :)

Eyeglasses said...

What a great tutorial! I love it!

Jennifer Juniper said...

WHY did I not know this when I had babies? I wonder if I can cram one of these on my 7 year old's head...he's home sick all doped up on Motrin...hmmmm...

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

Aww, congratulations Jess! how exciting! I'll be linking to these hats, they're ADORABLE!

Katy @ The Feet That Feed You said...

Thanks so much for sharing this cute idea... and just perfectly timed so that I can have a few on hand as the holidays creep closer and closer!

sallgood said...

Adorable! I haven't sewn with knit fabric for years, but this will HAVE to be made! :D

Carrie said...

I featured these on my blog today. Even though it's spring, I've had your post starred since October just waiting for the right moment to share this great idea. Hope you don't mind that I borrowed a photo-- I linked it up to your post, of course. Thanks for sharing! Can't wait to try and make these!

Kendra Goodrich said...

I'm featuring this on my blog, I love it! http://onmysideoftheroom.blogspot.com/

Susan said...

LOVE these! I want so much to make one for a baby gift I'm working on today but my seams keep curling. Help?

mmmmoxie said...

Dear Little Birdies... delightful pattern! I'll be making some of these for my little man. Just an alternate idea to finish the bottom: Cut the hat longer, then when finishing the bottom edge, turn 2" under and topstitch close to the edge of the fabric... say 1-3/4" from the folded edge. Then you can turn up the bottom about an inch, hiding the "hem stitching" and still having finished side seams on the bottom.... no visible seam allowance or serging!

And Susan-- what do you mean by curling? Can you describe the problem more? Did you find a solution or still struggling with it?

Unknown said...

Thanks a lot!was exactly what i searches for! is there a flickr group?
mimi pancakes

Anonymous said...

Do you think flannel would be okay to use? I have Blue star flannel and would love to use this pattern but would it be too stiff? I have a ton of left over BDU's from my hubby as well any ideas?

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