adventures in hat-making

I have finished a few little things this week, but they have not been well-documented...so far.  One project that I managed to complete was the sewing of a sun hat (yes, I am optimistic that spring has sprung, or will do so soon) for Miss F.

My first attempt was a flop...not "floppy" but a real flop.  I can't even be bothered to photograph it, but I will send out a warning to anyone planning to sew Butterick 5056: option A (top RH corner in the mosaic below) is drafted terribly.  Maybe there's a reason why they didn't show it on a real live baby!

The hat came out super-duper shallow -- it might work for an infant Frankenstein (or so says My Loving Husband, who knew that this first hat was oh-so-wrong and that he would be viewing as many hat-attempts as it took to get this right!).

The only good thing to come from this failed object is that I got the method down pat.

My next two attempts used the bucket hat pattern from the pretty new book by Liesl Gibson (of Oliver + S fame), Little Things to Sew.  I had pre-ordered this book, and luckily I made a mental note of the reversible hat featured in it.  So here it is, hat #2 in two colourways of a print from Anna Maria Horner:

It has barely left Miss F's head, but I will try to get a better photo of it soon.  In the meantime, I'm happy to report that the pattern is great, the instructions are well-written (as they always are from Ms. Gibson...I love her patterns!).  The only tricky step is the handsewing/slip-stitching of the second fabric "bucket" to the brim.  For some reason, this step was a snap on hat number #2, but didn't go so smoothly on hat #3.  We're just going to call that one a "lined hat" rather than a reversible one.  Photos of that soon....