In addition to all my other projects that are in progress, I have been doing some sewing. I lean heavily toward indie patterns, and I’m on a serious linen binge.

A little more than a year ago I had a skin cancer removed from the top of my scalp. So, ever since, I have been on a hat kick. I started buying bucket hats, and then I found a pattern in an article in Handwoven, September/October 2022. The subject of the article was sewing bucket hats with handwoven fabric and I thought I would definitely give this a try. The pattern is by Mood Fabrics and you can find it at moodfabrics.com/blog/the-bucket-hat-free-sewing-pattern.

I tried a couple of practice hats for size, and then made a real hat with fabric I had in my stash. It took a few months before I got it together to make the handwoven hat, but now it is done and I am pleased with the outcome.

Full disclosure, I totally hacked the pattern instructions. The hat in the magazine is a double layer for the brim, but only single layer for the crown and side panel. Leaving exposed seams? With handwoven fabric? I don’t think so. I made the hat in two layers and then sewed them together around the bottom of the brim, leaving a hole to turn the hat to the right side. then I sewed the hole shut as I was sewing parallel lines around the brim to finish it off.

Worked like a charm.

This is fabric that I wove in the fall of 2021 with 10/2 cotton and a little slubby yarn, all stash busters. I made a pair of pants from a pattern by GetWeaving’s Sarah Howard. (Shop on Etsy) The pants are great, but I had yardage left over, and I still do, but the hat helped with that.