Reindeer Hats

When the weather outside is frightful we've got a hat your kids will actually want to wear. I'm Lee Woodruff at the craft table with Family Fun and you and your kids can whip up this easy fleece cap in no time.

You'll need a sewing machine and a piece of brown fleece fifteen inches in length and wide enough to fit around your child's head with a two inch seam allowance ,a ruler, scissors, chalk, brown thread and pinking shears. You'll also need a pair of stretchy black knit gloves, a needle, fiber fill, fabric glue, two black buttons and two slightly larger white button, and a large red pom-pon. Fold the fleece exactly in half and make sure the stretch is horizontal. Cut three inches off the top of the fleece and set this strip aside for the ears. The remaining piece should now be twelve inches long. To create the rounded top of the hat, center a plate on the fleece and trace around it with chalk. Continue the line to the bottom of the fabric on both sides. Now remove the plate and mark a point four inches up from the bottom on each side. Starting and ending at the four inch marks, stitch the fabric together following the rounded chalk line. Use regular scissors to trim the fabric along the seam to one half inch. Do not trim below the four inch mark. Use pinking shears to finish the bottom edge of the hat. Now turn the hat right side out and stitch the remaining four inches all the way to the bottom on both sides. And you can do this by hand, too. Trim the fabric along those seams to a half an inch and turn up the brim. Loosely stuff the glove antlers with fiber fill and hand stitch the turned in cuffs to the hat just in front of the side seams. Using the extra fabric from step one, cut two leaf shaped ears, ours are two and half by three and a half inches each. Glue or sew one end to pinch it in, like this. Then, sew the ears in place on the hat. Sew the white buttons in place, then sew or glue the black buttons onto the white buttons. Glue or sew the pom-pon nose to the center of the brim and let the glue on the hat dry for twenty four hours. These whimsical winter hats are sure to turn heads on the slopes, the school bus, or anywhere else. You can find directions for snowboarder and snowman hats on our web site as well.