Rookie Moms

Activity #470: Sew a quick newborn hat — from a t-shirt

This has got to be one of the fastest projects I’ve ever done. And this time, I made it for myself. Well, for my new baby; however, since babies don’t know what they’re wearing, it’s truly for me.

In short, the instructions go like this: cut a front and back of a hat from the bottom portion of a t-shirt and sew them together.

For those who need more details than that, here’s the tutorial.

1. Select an appropriate shirt. (This one is going to be too tight for me for longer than I care to think about.)

2. Fold shirt in half length-wise to save cutting time. If your scissors are poor, you might not be able to do this. Outline half of a bunny-rabbit head shape along the fold. The bottom hem will become the hem of your hat. You want the hem to be about 7″ wide, so 3.5″ from the fold ought to do it.

3. Cut along the line you’ve drawn and see what you’ve got. This is the front and back of your hat.

4. Pin the right sides together and sew. Perfect symmetry is not critical because you will be tying the rabbit ears into a knot.

5. After sewing, turn right side out and you are done! For a super-cute gift, make a matching pair of pants out of the sleeves of the same shirt. (Tutorial coming another day :-)) And, of course, a little zig-zag stitch along the bottom would be a nice touch.

If you make this, please post to flickr with a tag for rookiemoms! We want to see!

by Whitney in Crafty, Prenatal | Email this activity to a friend
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(8 votes, average: 4.88 out of 5)

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8 Responses to “Sew a quick newborn hat — from a t-shirt”

1. kendra Says:
   March 9th, 2007 at 6:02 pm

   That is the greatest idea!
   I’m going to have to go hunt around for some old t-shirts of mine this weekend and make one! Maybe an old maternity shirt, in fact.
   I’ll post a flickr photo when I’m done.

2. claudia Says:
   March 10th, 2007 at 10:00 pm

   Thanks for posting about this great hat idea on refashion files! Now I can use my ratty t-sirts with all the little holes in the belly button area! (How does that happen!?)

   BTW, I’m glad you told me that the button on RF is too big! I have been working on changing it so now I really must get on that!!!

3. Amy Says:
   March 12th, 2007 at 9:38 am

   I have a nasty t-shirt I was going to cut into rags. This will be a great beginning sewing project. Thanks so much!

4. Andrea Says:
   August 2nd, 2007 at 3:17 pm

   I wonder if this could be made with out the bunny ears too?

5. Camellia Says:
   October 20th, 2007 at 6:11 pm

   This is an awesome project! Thanks so much for posting it, I never would have known how to do it on my own. I’m totally hooked on making baby hats now.

   Now, will you please post the tutorial on how to make pants out of the sleeves? I’m totally serious–I’m a novice at sewing and have no idea how to go about it, but would love to make some matching pairs of little stripy baby pants.

6. Alishia Says:
   April 24th, 2008 at 4:21 pm

   love it!! I ended up keeping the shirt flat drawing my own pattern from you dimensions and making a pattern and with that i could fit three hats out of one t-shirt!

   Please post the pants pattern, i am totally interested!!!!

7. pantrygirl Says:
   May 5th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

   Cute hat!

   I’m going to scrounge through hubby’s clothing for a couple of shirts to use.

8. Two new craft projects to keep me busy! « Westmama’s Weblog Says:
   May 16th, 2008 at 9:49 am

   […] Baby Hat http://www.rookiemoms.com/sew-a-quick-newborn-hat-from-a-t-shirt/ […]

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