Mud, Pies and Pins

As soon as I heard about the Umbrella Prints Trimmings Competition I knew I wanted to take part. I ordered my trimmings pack, waited somewhat impatiently for it to arrive, and when it did started drafting ideas as to what I would do with it. Too many ideas. I eventually decided on a bag, but the rest of the ideas kept tugging at my creativity, begging to be made, and so I ordered a few more trimmings packs.

One of those packs contained these beautiful scraps, and as soon as I saw them I knew they would be perfect for the new bucket hat my youngest son so badly needed for those sunny days that keep popping up from time to time (but sadly rarely when I plan on taking photographs). Last year I made both my boys reversible bucket hats for summer wear and they became a firm favourite. While my older son still has his hat from last year, and a new one for this year, my youngest remained hatless and so my project was chosen.

I started by dividing the fabric into two contrasting bundles, one for each of the looks I was aiming for. The green, orange and beiges naturally fitted together, leaving the blues with a hint of black and hot pink. Once I had sorted out the fabrics I set about creating the pieced fabrics I would need for each version of the hat.

I chose to incorporate the fabrics into the side panels of the hat and so created my fabric pieces using the side pattern piece as a guide. I teamed the green/orange/beige panel with some loose weave brown cotton for a natural look, whereas the blues teamed up well with a plain off-white cotton (please excuse these next photos, night-time sewing doesn’t lend itself to taking good photos).

Once these pieces were completed I went on to cut out my hat pieces and create the hat as normal.  After making the crown section I tried both pieces on my little man for size – thankfully they were a perfect fit.

A little more sewing to add the brim and the end result is a lovely summer hat (or is that hats?) that should keep my little man well protected from the sun but at the same time keep him cool and looking smart.

I really love how the pieced panels look so different depending on how you look at them.

The black and hot pink fabrics – well I initially thought I would use them with the blue fabrics, either as part of the side panel or incorporated into the crown of the hat, but they just didn’t fit. Not one to waste fabrics I used them instead as part of a small drawstring bag that my older son asked me to make for his musical instruments.The bag that they came in was beginning to fall apart at the seams so I rescued the drawstring, dumped the rest and with a little pieceing made him a nice sturdy lined music bag.

All of the Umbrella Prints Trimmings competition entries will be pinned to their Pinterest board on May 31st and you can vote from June 1st-5th (EST) by pinning your favourite or favourites. Don’t forget to check it out, if past years are anything to go by there will be no end of wonderful ideas and creations.