See Kate Sew partners with Gugu Guru once again to share a fantastic DIY tutorial. This time? A DIY baby hat and personalized fabric! Read on to get the details…
I’ve never been a huge fan of the hospital hats so these are a cuter way to keep baby’s head warm! There’s a cute little knot at the top and it’s stretchy and cute! And if you make it personalized, they are also a unique and adorable way to announce your baby’s name!
We have been using the DockATot every night since we’ve been home from the hospital! Baby Mae sleeps in it and she always falls asleep really well. We swaddle her and stick her in the DockATot inside her crib. The firm cushions all around the DockATot keep her nice and cozy. I think it helps her to feel secure as she sleeps and I’m not complaining about 5-6 hour stretches of sleep!
She’s been such a great sleeper so far, I’m giving some of the credit to this thing! I also love how cute they look in it! One of the best parts about the DockATot is the removable, washable cover! There are a bunch of color options and you can buy extra covers separately! I definitely recommend getting a second cover, we had a spit up episode the first or second night and a pee episode on another day. It’s nice to not have the pressure of keeping it nice when you can just throw it in the wash!
And this baby lounger is the only place baby Mae can get a decent nap! It’s really hard for her to nap with two other crazy wild kids around. We use the DockATot also as a way to keep the baby safe on the bed or floor when other kids are around. It’s lightweight enough to tote around the house and is probably perfect for traveling, though we haven’t traveled with the new baby yet!
These knotted baby hats are SUPER easy and fast to make! It’s a great first sewing project if you’ve never sewn and I always love a good quick sewing project that you can finish while baby is napping (maybe in her DockATot, ha!).
First I’ll show you how to make the hat, then I’ll show you how to personalize solid fabric!
Materials:
-1/4 yard knit fabric
–knot hat pattern download (this will fit about newborn to 2/3 months!)
–stretch needle
Instructions:
Print the pattern at 100% (do not scale) and trim off the edges. Tape the pattern piece together and cut out the hat pattern.
Pin the pattern to 2 layers of fabric and cut out 2 pieces.
Pin the pieces together with right sides together.
Sew around the hat with a 3/8″ seam allowance
Turn the hat right side out.
Finish the bottom edge of the hat with a zig zag stitch or a serger. Press under 1/2″ at the bottom of the hat. Sew to finish hem.
Tie a knot in the top of that, leaving about an inch or so at the top.
All done!
Personalize it! To make a name hat we’ll start with the fabric before you turn it into a hat. You can either use a square of fabric 12″ by 12″ or cut the pattern pieces out and just put names on the fabric you need.
Materials:
-baby hat fabric
-vinyl cutting machine, I used a Cricut Explore Air
-vinyl + transfer tape
-fabric paint
-foam brush
Create a vinyl stencil with your cutting machine. You’ll need 2 if you’re using a standard 12″ by 12″ mat. Use transfer tape to transfer it from the vinyl’s backing to the fabric. Stick it on, making sure to press well around letter edges.
Use foam brush to dab paint into spaces.
Let dry. Peel vinyl off and make sure you get all the middles from letters like “a” and “e”. Then use your fabric to sew the hat!
That’s it!
Hello!! Just made the hat with Kate’s pattern. Easy Peasy!! May I ask, where are the striped and floral fabric from?
Thanks so much!
Hello!
Where do you get the stripe fabric?
So glad to hear it! The Striped fabric is from Raspberry Creek Fabrics on Etsy, it is one of their Club Fabrics: https://www.etsy.com/shop/RaspberryCreekFabric?section_id=7158268&ref=shopsection_leftnav_2
The floral is by Art Gallery called “Coastline High-Flown Lunar”
Good luck!
Lovely. I’ve been looking for a pattern for this for a while. I had one from Blessed Designs in hard copy but the web site as it was no longer exists.
However, I don’t seem to be able to print yours at 100% – it just prints sideways on a piece of A4 with the 1″ square at about 7/16ths of an inch. It looks as though it should be 2 pages but it only shows up as one, with a line through the middle. Is there a trick?
I have got round it (in case anyone else has a similar problem) by copying the image into a word document, in landscape, reducing the page layout margins to 0.5cm, cropping the image right to the hat edges (but including part of the 1″ square), and enlarging it until the 1″ square measured 1″ on screen (at 100%). To start with I kept all of the 1″ square at the cropping, but then I lost the bottom side of the hat, so I figured as long as I had the bottom of the 1″ square, that would give me something against which to measure. So now I’ve got a pattern. It measures 10 1/4″ top to bottom, and 6 3/4″ at the base. Hope that’s correct.
Thank you! I’m having the same issue as well.
Hi!
I really like the pattern for the hat, butI can’t get the hat pattern 🙁 It just comes up a blank pdf page. What did I do wrong? They are cute though!! Thanks!
Hello! I just made my new niece one of these hats but the top knot part is much shorter than it looks in the photos. I can barely tie a knot. I printed out the pattern at 100% and followed it correctly but it’s definitely not long enough. Do you make yours longer? Is anyone else having this issue?
Hi Violet – so sorry for the late reply. Please contact See Kate Sew https://seekatesew.com/contact/