Pattern Review: Floppy Flower Sun Hat

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Peek-a-Boo Pattern Shop’s patterns. In fact, I haven’t met one yet that I didn’t like ;). When Amy contacted me recently to do a pattern swap (you can see the Seafarer Top that she made for the pattern tour here), I was immediately on board and already knew exactly what pattern I wanted to make.

Have you noticed how hard it is to find a cute basic sun hat in the stores? I think part of the problem is that I’m too cheap frugal to spend money on something that I could so easily make, so unless I find it on clearance for $3, I probably won’t buy it. I think it’s a disease that many of us sewists share.

Luckily I had recently scouted out Amy’s Floppy Flower Sun Hat pattern. I loved the wide floppy brim, and what a simple pattern it is.

I put the pattern together a bit different than Amy’s instructions, mainly because I was originally planning to make it a reversible hat. Techically I guess it could still be reversible, but the straps would be on the outside of the hat instead of the inside, so I probably won’t use it that way. I do love the Amy Butler lining fabric though – I used up the very last of my scraps that I’ve been saving for years.

I basically just made the outer hat and lining pieces exactly the same, with the exception of sandwiching the straps in between the crown and brim on the lining, sewed them right sides together, turned them right sides out through an opening, and then topstitched around the brim.

I initially made the mistake of sandwiching the straps in the wrong place, resulting in the brim seams being on the center front and back of that hat. And unfortunately I didn’t realize it until the hat was almost finished. Not good with large polka dots. So after a self-pep talk and some seam ripping (and a little encouragement from some Instagram friends), I fixed it and am really happy with how it turned out.

The fit is perfect on Lola’s little head. She’s 13 months now but I made the 6-12m size and it’s snug without being too tight. I’ve been in a bad habit lately of making everything a size too big for her so that she doesn’t grow out of it too quickly, but the little stinker just doesn’t grow and it’s kind of backfired on me. So I have several things I’ve been waiting for her to grow into, and I didn’t want it to be the case with this hat.

I obviously left the flower off the hat, to keep it simple and give Lola one less thing to tug on.

I’m excited to have a cute new hat for Lola to wear and had lots of fun making it. I love being able to sew mindlessly and use other designer’s patterns! Get the pattern here!

Get the pattern