A Jester's Hat

This was meant to be a Christmas present for Elf son. In these pictures he is wearing the hat with a balaclava under it as it was really windy that day.

Luckily I constructed it a day before the winter began in the late November. As the snow started to fall for real, I decided to give the hat to Elf son immediately. It was no time before it looked like this around us. ( I am sure you are well tired of snow pictures now, just jump over...)

The hat is made entirely of fleece and I made the pattern myself. It even involved using Pi calculating some of the measurements. I was really proud of this fact, which just reveals my exceptionally bad maths. I took from beginning to finish just a couple of hours, so if you use a pattern, you could be done in an hour.

Making the hat from fleece simplifies the process a lot: it doesn't fray, it gives a little, but not enough to requite stretch stitch and it stays put. All in all very forgiving and an ideal beginner project. If you are a beginner, you are forgiven to think that I am mad. It really is far easier than you might think. Any mistakes or miscalculations are easy to put right without too much of altering.

I have it in my mind to make the pattern available here as a PDF file and write instructions how to make it, if people want to have it. If you have sewn before, you might just need to see my pictures to figure it out. Elf son wanted to have "streamers" in the back, like his hat from Lapland had:

I would have preferred a dark gray with the red, but unfortunately I could not get fleece in that colour. I used new fabrics, but this could easily be made from an old thrifted fleece jumper as the pieces are small. I can see in my mind's eye many a variation from the theme: using one colour, decorated with ribbons and buttons on the bit going around the head, multi coloured...bells anyone? Elf son's hat has been used a lot, as the snow is still on the ground, although it looks as if it is going and this will soon be just a nice memory:,