The Art of Sewing a Baby Hat: A Step-by-Step Guide

When it comes to creating adorable baby hats, one of the most important things to consider is the fabric stretch. That's why I always use a zig-zag stitch when sewing this particular part of the hat. This stitch allows for maximum flexibility and comfort for the little one wearing it.

To start, take five minutes to prepare your fabric by pressing on in place. This will help you get a smooth, even seam as you sew. Next, select a zig-zag stitch, which is perfect for stretchy fabrics like knits. You can adjust the stitch length to suit your needs, and I like to use it here because it allows for more flexibility in this area of the hat.

Now that we have our front and back pieces ready, let's move on to sewing them together. Place the two pieces right sides facing each other, and match up the seams at the cuff. Pin these pieces together carefully, making sure they're secure and even.

With your machine set to a straight stitch, sew around the curve of the hat, using about a quarter inch seam allowance. As you sew on curves, it's essential to go slow and take your time. If you find yourself pulling too hard on the fabric, pause for a moment and let it relax before continuing. This will help prevent distortion and ensure a smooth finish.

When sewing around the dart, be sure to follow the curve of the hat and sew right over the seam. This will help create a flat, even surface. Finally, use a back stitch to secure your seam and add a few finishing touches.

The final touches are where you can really get creative with your design. You could leave the hat as is, or add some decorative elements like pom-poms on top. I've shown you how to make pom-poms in previous videos, and it's a great way to add some personality to your finished project.

To attach the pom-pom, thread your needle through the bottom of the hat at the center, and then pull it through the middle of the pom-pom. Continue threading your needle in and out of the pom-pom until you've secured it in place. Tie a knot on the inside of the hat to keep everything in place.

To finish off your hat, simply tie a few knots throughout the pom-pom to secure it in place. Make sure they're not too tight, as this can distort the fabric. Finally, trim any excess thread and voila! You've created a beautiful, adorable baby hat that's perfect for snuggling up with.

For more ideas and tutorials on sewing machines and other projects, be sure to visit my website at Made Every Day. I have plenty of resources available, including patterns, tutorials, and tips from an experienced sewer. Happy sewing!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhey guys it's Dana today were to make a tiny little project and it's only going to take about five minutes so let's do it you know I love to make baby items so here is another one you can add to your list of gifts to make for friends it's a little baby hat and really it's the first fashion statement and newborn gets to make in those first few months of life the best part of it takes me about five minutes or so here is what you need a small amount of knit fabric and a pom-pom for the top the great thing about these tabs is you only need a little bit of fabric and there are so many cute knit fabrics out there these days you can find them online in stores and from an old t-shirt the important thing about using a knit is that it's going to stretch as it goes over your baby's head now you also need to have a little pattern you can create your own by taking apart an old hat that maybe you have or you can download my free pattern which is on my site and made every day calm I've actually taken the pattern and trace it to cardstock which I like to do when it's a pattern that I use over and over again because it just makes it a little easier to trace and you'll notice I'm marking on here that says threats with arrows that means you want to place that in the direction that the fabric stretches if you want to learn more about mist I have another video that goes into all of those details place your pattern on your fabric and I have two layers here because there's a front and a back spear hat and then you could trace this with a fabric marker I'm just going to use my scissors and just cut right into the fabric I like to hold my left hand pressing down and just cut right around other ways to cut are using fabric weights or using a rotary cutter kind of a scissors person so use whatever works best for you not that aside now you'll also notice this triangular piece in the middle that's going to create a dart in our hat which will make the hat kind of curve more around a baby's head so take each of your pieces fold them in half with right sides together and we're in marked where that dart needs to go okay have them like that taking a little piece here place it right on top I'm using a fabric marker here let's pull it down just a little bit and Mark without first line should go and then push it up and Mark where as the end of the point is right there take a ruler connect those together to make a diagonal line like that and then when we sew we're going to sew right along this line that we drew that's going to create our dart now let's mark the other one right here pull it down a little bit pick the dot there other dot ruler and Mark our line okay we're ready to sew I have both my pieces still folded in half because we're going to sew right along that line with it folded in half to create that Dart and I know I'm always talking about using a zig zag stitch when you sew it's knit and that is important we're going to do that in the next step but for this particular part I find that it works a little easier to do a straight stitch otherwise it gets a little bumpy at the top and this isn't a particular part that gets a lot of stretch so start with for two back stitch and then just sew right along that line if you want to go slow you can adjust your speed right here and as you get to the end you're almost going to so off of the fabric because you want it to well that's what creates a little dirt so do a back stitch cut your threads I love my cutting feature on my baby lock and there you go you can see that we sewed right along that line there now let's sew our other one and we have both pieces sewn now let's go to our iron now press l dart you can press them to one side of the other it doesn't really matter just like that and you can see what this has done is kind of gathered up the fabrics just a little bit in the middle which is nice when it goes kind of on a curve of a baby's head it just will shape better around their head let's prop the other one then we're going to create the hem or the cuffs of the Hat whatever you want to call it so fold this under about 3/4 of an inch that also does not need to be exact that's just what I like to use press that in place and the nice thing with knits is that it doesn't spray at the end we don't have to worry about this raw edge right here we don't have to press it under and then under again we can just leave it right like that and so on top do the other one if you want just actually press it on top of this one make sure that there is the exact same size there we go okay press on in place now let's go that employs and so this in close I told you to take five minutes now for this particular step you do want to use a zig-zag stitch because that will stretch with the fabric and this is a part of the Hat that really does take on a lot of the stretch so I'm going to select that over here there we go and I can even increase the stitch length a little bit if I want to and now we're just going to sew a straight line right down on that cuff pretty simple to a forward and back stitch and sew right down again don't pull the fabric as you go just let your machine see the fabric through for you to backs it to the end cut your thread and let's do the other one for the back stitch go right down I really do love making these hats because they well like I said come together quickly but they're so great for newborn babies to help keep them warm and just so much cuter than the ones you get at the hospital I mean right okay we have our front and our back which look identical now we're just going to pin them together so lay them with right sides of the fabric together and match them up at the cuff that's the most important part and then just pin it around a few times okay now we're going to sew this and I'm going to go back to a straight stitch again because as you sew around this curve no matter how careful I try to be about not direction in the fabric as zigzag again kind of makes it feel bumpy so I'm going back to my straight stitch to my machine and I'm using about a quarter inch seam allowance here to the back stitch okay and when you're sewing on curves first of all you want to go slow so if you're going too fast with your foot you can adjust your speed right over here there we go and then you need to somehow turn it as you're going but if you pull it it's going to stretch the fabric so I sew a little bit with knit fabrics especially I pause kind of lift my presser foot and let the fabric relax a little bit and then keep going so a little bit more and as you can see it's getting kind of pulled I just do the same thing again I'm going to keep letting the fabric relax so it can kind of bounce back to its position go make your way around when he hits the dart just sew right over the dart it will sew it flat and just like that we made it back to the beginning go back stitch and now I'll show you the final touches and there you go there's our finished hat I took my iron and press out that rounded thing just so it looks nice and flat and it's going to sit great on the baby's head and let me show you some final touches you could leave the Hat just as it is like that which I also love to do looks adorable or you can add a little pom-pom on top which I've shown you how to make in a previous video I have one right here my pom poms you can make it any size little big ginormous whatever is fun for you I have a needle and thread right here which I've shown you how to thread and how to tie a knot in a previous video you're going to go in through the bottom of your hat in the middle here a little difficult to show you but I'm coming in from the inside coming out right up here on the top pull it through until the knot ends on the inside of the Hat like that take your pom-pom and I'm just going through anywhere in the pom-pom it doesn't really need to be super specific till it comes out the other side there we go okay now you can see it's kind of all my hat and then I'm going to go back down through another spot so it's kind of right in the middle pull my needle back out the other side let's see how that's looking there we go looking good okay now to see that a few more times go back through the middle like that back through the pom pom back down and after you've done that a few times you just want to tie a little knot what you want to do is go through the fabric like that and then take your needle back through this to create a little knot pull it tight and then I do that maybe a few more times through the fabric through this little loop and sometimes I go back again through the other loop and that creates a doesn't lot cut your thread and there we go we just made a simple quick cute little baby hat for more ideas and tutorials visit my website made every day calm so forum formation on sewing machines go to Phase II large calm where's all to the love of sewing I'll see you guys next time byehey guys it's Dana today were to make a tiny little project and it's only going to take about five minutes so let's do it you know I love to make baby items so here is another one you can add to your list of gifts to make for friends it's a little baby hat and really it's the first fashion statement and newborn gets to make in those first few months of life the best part of it takes me about five minutes or so here is what you need a small amount of knit fabric and a pom-pom for the top the great thing about these tabs is you only need a little bit of fabric and there are so many cute knit fabrics out there these days you can find them online in stores and from an old t-shirt the important thing about using a knit is that it's going to stretch as it goes over your baby's head now you also need to have a little pattern you can create your own by taking apart an old hat that maybe you have or you can download my free pattern which is on my site and made every day calm I've actually taken the pattern and trace it to cardstock which I like to do when it's a pattern that I use over and over again because it just makes it a little easier to trace and you'll notice I'm marking on here that says threats with arrows that means you want to place that in the direction that the fabric stretches if you want to learn more about mist I have another video that goes into all of those details place your pattern on your fabric and I have two layers here because there's a front and a back spear hat and then you could trace this with a fabric marker I'm just going to use my scissors and just cut right into the fabric I like to hold my left hand pressing down and just cut right around other ways to cut are using fabric weights or using a rotary cutter kind of a scissors person so use whatever works best for you not that aside now you'll also notice this triangular piece in the middle that's going to create a dart in our hat which will make the hat kind of curve more around a baby's head so take each of your pieces fold them in half with right sides together and we're in marked where that dart needs to go okay have them like that taking a little piece here place it right on top I'm using a fabric marker here let's pull it down just a little bit and Mark without first line should go and then push it up and Mark where as the end of the point is right there take a ruler connect those together to make a diagonal line like that and then when we sew we're going to sew right along this line that we drew that's going to create our dart now let's mark the other one right here pull it down a little bit pick the dot there other dot ruler and Mark our line okay we're ready to sew I have both my pieces still folded in half because we're going to sew right along that line with it folded in half to create that Dart and I know I'm always talking about using a zig zag stitch when you sew it's knit and that is important we're going to do that in the next step but for this particular part I find that it works a little easier to do a straight stitch otherwise it gets a little bumpy at the top and this isn't a particular part that gets a lot of stretch so start with for two back stitch and then just sew right along that line if you want to go slow you can adjust your speed right here and as you get to the end you're almost going to so off of the fabric because you want it to well that's what creates a little dirt so do a back stitch cut your threads I love my cutting feature on my baby lock and there you go you can see that we sewed right along that line there now let's sew our other one and we have both pieces sewn now let's go to our iron now press l dart you can press them to one side of the other it doesn't really matter just like that and you can see what this has done is kind of gathered up the fabrics just a little bit in the middle which is nice when it goes kind of on a curve of a baby's head it just will shape better around their head let's prop the other one then we're going to create the hem or the cuffs of the Hat whatever you want to call it so fold this under about 3/4 of an inch that also does not need to be exact that's just what I like to use press that in place and the nice thing with knits is that it doesn't spray at the end we don't have to worry about this raw edge right here we don't have to press it under and then under again we can just leave it right like that and so on top do the other one if you want just actually press it on top of this one make sure that there is the exact same size there we go okay press on in place now let's go that employs and so this in close I told you to take five minutes now for this particular step you do want to use a zig-zag stitch because that will stretch with the fabric and this is a part of the Hat that really does take on a lot of the stretch so I'm going to select that over here there we go and I can even increase the stitch length a little bit if I want to and now we're just going to sew a straight line right down on that cuff pretty simple to a forward and back stitch and sew right down again don't pull the fabric as you go just let your machine see the fabric through for you to backs it to the end cut your thread and let's do the other one for the back stitch go right down I really do love making these hats because they well like I said come together quickly but they're so great for newborn babies to help keep them warm and just so much cuter than the ones you get at the hospital I mean right okay we have our front and our back which look identical now we're just going to pin them together so lay them with right sides of the fabric together and match them up at the cuff that's the most important part and then just pin it around a few times okay now we're going to sew this and I'm going to go back to a straight stitch again because as you sew around this curve no matter how careful I try to be about not direction in the fabric as zigzag again kind of makes it feel bumpy so I'm going back to my straight stitch to my machine and I'm using about a quarter inch seam allowance here to the back stitch okay and when you're sewing on curves first of all you want to go slow so if you're going too fast with your foot you can adjust your speed right over here there we go and then you need to somehow turn it as you're going but if you pull it it's going to stretch the fabric so I sew a little bit with knit fabrics especially I pause kind of lift my presser foot and let the fabric relax a little bit and then keep going so a little bit more and as you can see it's getting kind of pulled I just do the same thing again I'm going to keep letting the fabric relax so it can kind of bounce back to its position go make your way around when he hits the dart just sew right over the dart it will sew it flat and just like that we made it back to the beginning go back stitch and now I'll show you the final touches and there you go there's our finished hat I took my iron and press out that rounded thing just so it looks nice and flat and it's going to sit great on the baby's head and let me show you some final touches you could leave the Hat just as it is like that which I also love to do looks adorable or you can add a little pom-pom on top which I've shown you how to make in a previous video I have one right here my pom poms you can make it any size little big ginormous whatever is fun for you I have a needle and thread right here which I've shown you how to thread and how to tie a knot in a previous video you're going to go in through the bottom of your hat in the middle here a little difficult to show you but I'm coming in from the inside coming out right up here on the top pull it through until the knot ends on the inside of the Hat like that take your pom-pom and I'm just going through anywhere in the pom-pom it doesn't really need to be super specific till it comes out the other side there we go okay now you can see it's kind of all my hat and then I'm going to go back down through another spot so it's kind of right in the middle pull my needle back out the other side let's see how that's looking there we go looking good okay now to see that a few more times go back through the middle like that back through the pom pom back down and after you've done that a few times you just want to tie a little knot what you want to do is go through the fabric like that and then take your needle back through this to create a little knot pull it tight and then I do that maybe a few more times through the fabric through this little loop and sometimes I go back again through the other loop and that creates a doesn't lot cut your thread and there we go we just made a simple quick cute little baby hat for more ideas and tutorials visit my website made every day calm so forum formation on sewing machines go to Phase II large calm where's all to the love of sewing I'll see you guys next time bye\n"