Altering a women´s sunhat pattern

When you draw up a pattern for a women´s sun hat, or use an existing pattern, there is often lots of altering required to make it fit yourself. Here are some thoughts on that. Probably a good idea to red the previous post on making a women´s sunhat pattern too.

Obviously these are just hand written notes. If anyone in internet-land can´t read my writing, drop me a line in a comment. Why would anyone put these on the net you could ask? :o) Well, with two young kids this is the only place I can put these notes and find them again. The real notes have probably been made into paper airplanes, scribbled on, spilt on etc by now ;o)


Altering the top of a hat


Altering the crown and brim. This is the method to use if you want to change the style of a hat. It is hard (although not impossible) to alter a pattern in this way and keep the same ratio between the top / crown / and brim. When you alter that ratio between those pieces, you change the style of the hat.



A simple method for doing small size alterations for the crown and brim, while keeping the same style of hat (ie - keeping the correct rations between brim / crown).

Making a women´s sunhat pattern

Some thoughts on making a women´s sunhat pattern. Obviously these are just hand written notes. Why would anyone put these on the net you could ask? :o) Well, with two young kids this is the only place I can put these notes and find them again. The real notes have probably been made into paper airplanes, scribbled on, spilt on etc by now ;o) If anyone in internet-land can´t read my writing, drop me a line in a comment.

Some thoughts on making patterns for different sunhat styles:


At the end, after you have checked that the length of the seams are the same length on the pieces that will join up, you need to check that the curve of the pieces is even all the way along:

How to sew a women´s sun hat

Here are some instructions on how to sew an adult women´s sun hat. I think there are many different ways to do it, but this is just the way that I have figured out for myself. It is very windy in Wellington, so I´m aiming to not just make any old hat, but specifically one that will stay on a strong breeze (which is the purpose of the string casing etc). I´ve made a couple like this so far here and here. Even though the pattern was different, the basic sewing instructions were the same.

Another sun hat

I´ve had another go at making a sun hat pattern, and I think I´m happy with this one. The top is an altered version of Lotta Jamsdotter´s sun hat - keeping the general shape mostly, but resized for my measurements. The base is not unlike the previous sun hat I made, but slightly less wide.

Lotta Jansdotter Sun Hat

This is the Sun Hat from Lotta Jansdotter´s book Simple Sewing. I thought I´d see whetehr I like this pattern better than the one I made a few days ago. I like the crown of the hat, but the brim, not so much. I shortened the brim, as the word in blogland was that it was huge. Even the massive amounts I cut off it weren´t enough. Althought I like the ones other people have made, and I think they look great on them, for some reason this hat has a Pride and Prejudice bonnet look to it. I´m sure a supermodel could pull that look off, and people would be looking for their own lampshades, but on me, I´m thinking urgh. It looks a bit better with the brim turned up, but really, not alot can save this hat, as from the back it just looks like a bonnet with the front turned up. I won´t make it again!

Sun hat from my own pattern

With summer coming, and no nice sunhats in the shops, I decided to make my own pattern. I really like the hats that turn up at the brim, but they don´t seem to sell them anymore. Also, I really hate tight hats - they give me a headache, so making a hat with my own pattern to fit my head seems the only option.

It isn´t really a project from the book Design if Yourself: Patternmaking Simplified, but I did use some of the techniques in it to make the pattern.


Above: the inside lining.

Instructions for making the pattern below (fits my head - 56.5 cm circumference, measured above eyebrows...