McCalls 3422: Santa Hat 50 years in the making

It snowed today.  It's the perfect weather for my new Santa hat.



I have been wanting a santa hat lately.

So on Sunday night I sewed up McCalls 3422 (A pattern dated 2001, which somehow survived many pattern cleanouts, somehow).  I used red furry fabric from my crafty grandmother.  My mom estimates this fabric to be at least 50 years old.


I loved how I could see a semicircle was cut out of this fabric with pinking shears. I imagine that my grandmother cut an entire tree skirt out of this fabric.

I even muslined it, which felt on one hand like going too far, on the other, if it was too small...there goes the fabric!

After measuring my head and muslining for fit (I took the largest hat size, 23"...which is what the circumference of my head is, ha ha). I sewed it up and tried it on, but the underside of that furry fabric was pretty itchy on my forehead so I took it apart and lined it with very soft Snoopy Christmas pj fabric I estimate to have owned since college.  I don't know how to describe this fabric other than it's the kind of fabric kids pjs is made out of.  Very synthetic feeling but also soft.


I don't know where the white furry fabric is from, but there it was in my stash. The pattern calls for a 2" wide trim but I cut mine 3". Next time I would cut it 4" as the turn of cloth on fabric this thick is quite a lot, and the thicker the trim, the more luxe (there's that word again!) it looks.

The "pompom" is actually a 5" square where I brought the corners together and sewed, then sewed again...

 and then


and then
 
and then
 
and then it looks like this:

Close enough to a pompom!!!

There's a cat that lives in the parking garage at work. He has a bobtail, so I call him Bob. Today, my coworker and I made a snowcat in Bob's likeness. It was the best lunch hour!

Greetings from Princeton, NJ!
Be well!