Summer Bucket Hat for Elliot

It's the first day of Celebrate the Summmer BOY edition! I'm so excited to show you what I've been working on for Elliot!!! Be sure to stop by MADE to see what Dana has been working on too (we're co-celebrating as we have in the past)! I'm thrilled with the summer boy projects that have been added to the Celebrate the Boy photo pool so far and we'll be sure to do a roundup later this week.

We had a really fantastic weekend. It was sunny and perfect here in Michigan. I had a baby shower on Saturday for my sister-in-law who is having a baby boy very soon and then drove the kids up to a beautiful cottage for some relaxing lake time with a dear friend and her children. I'm still so sore from waterskiing I can barely type. I wasn't even sure I'd be physically able to waterski though (I think it's been at least 10 years, MAN that makes me feel old), so I impressed both myself and Elliot, who was thoroughly entertained from his seat in the back of the boat. Clementine just moaned "home. home. home." the entire time she was on the water. Maybe not so much of a sailor, that one.

One of the essentials of Elliot's summer wardrobe is a sunhat. It is the one item of clothing that gets worn almost every day the entire summer long. The Oliver+S Little Things to Sew Bucket Hat is taking Craftblogland by storm, and for good reason: it's easy and quick and most importantly practical for summer. I knew this would be a great little hat for Elliot.

Little Things to Sew by Liesl Gibson

Boys hats are fun to make because the fabric choices for boys these days are are so wonderful. Luckily I had plenty of Elliot's favorite Lizzy House print left (seen previously here on his favorite pair of pants) so I made him a hat that will probably get worn as much as those pants have.

The pants.

I sewed this hat together in a couple hours and it looks great! I had a little trouble with a bit of puckering when I put the brim and top of the hat together. I know from experience making other hats like this though that it's nearly impossible to avoid puckering when you have multiple edges of varying radii of curvature (which is the case with this hat), so I didn't bother to go back and fix them. Plus this fabric really hides mistakes well, double bonus for that fabric choice! I guess if I wanted this hat to look totally top notch I probably would have pulled out the seams and tried it again, or stay-stitched all of the curved seams after cutting out the pieces. One thing I will offer as a suggestion (and time-saver): dissolvable double sided tape is really handy for skipping the hand-sewing step towards the end (got mine at Material Girl in Dearborn, scroll down on that link to "Wonder Tape Bohin" to purchase online). You can see here where I placed it around the inside brim before putting the inside of the hat on before sewing the whole thing together:

I knew that Elliot would never tolerate the green fabric being worn on the inside so I made the inside a plain linen. It won't ever get reversed, but the pattern is reversible for those who think they would want two hats for the time-price of one, which is really fantastic. Here's a look at some other Little Things to Sew Bucket hats! These boy versions are really great:

1. Reversible Bucket Hat from "Oliver +S Little Things to Sew", 2. bucket hat (elephant side), 3. robothoed, 4. Entertaining Elephants Bucket Hat, 5. Ducky Bucket Hat, 6. elephant bucket hat, 7. Hat the third, 8. Dog hat..., 9. Oliver + S hat, 10. bucket hat (blue side), 11. Reversible Bucket Hat from "Oliver +S Little Things to Sew", 12. bucket hat

Here's a few shots of the hat in action. After being at Lake Michigan with this hat I think the next one will have straps (wouldn't it work great to put them on at the "tape" step?) to keep it from blowing off. I can't wait to make another one!