“He’s All Boy” Baby Cap Tutorial

 

Download the PDF pattern HERE. Size: 0-3 months

*for personal use only

Materials needed: 1 Large men’s flannel shirt, 1 soft knit t-shirt (lining) , 1 button, interfacing

You can also use new fabric:  1/3 yard for cap and a 18″x12″ piece for lining.

For a matching baby blanket made from flannel shirts tutorial, click HERE.

Once pattern pieces are printed out and part A & B of the cap band have been attached together, cut out all pieces as specified on each pattern piece.  If using a flannel shirt, all pieces can be cut out of the shirt front, leaving the shirt back for another project.

Cut out lining.  You can use a piece of solid or printed cotton or an old t-shirt.

Cut brim piece from interfacing as well. Pick a quality depending on the stiffness you’d like in your brim.

Once everything is cut, these are the pieces you should have (my lining pieces look mishapen because the knit fabric is rolling a bit).

Sew cap front piece, right sides together, along short, straight edge and press open.  Repeat on front cap lining piece.

Place an ease stitch around the back cap piece. One way to create an ease stitch is to set thread tension to a tighter level.

Stitch around back cap piece just shy of the 3/8″ seam allowance.  Thread tension should be enough to pull in fabric but should not high enough to gather it (there should be no tucking of the fabric at the stitch line, just rippling).  Repeat ease stitch on back cap lining piece.

When the cap back is properly “eased”, it should look like this.

Pin and sew cap back piece to cap front piece, right sides together. Ease stitch should help ease in extra fabric from cap back. Repeat for lining pieces.

If small tucks happen at seam, unpick and resew, taking care to ease in fabric with out gathers.

Prepare brim to be attached: to lessen bulk at seam, trim interfacing then iron onto wrong side of brim piece.

Placing right sides together, sew brim together along curved edge. Trim seam & notch to reduce bulk around curve.

Flip brim right side out and press.  If you’d like to add topstitching to the brim, now is the time to do it!

Prepare cap band to be attached: press in half along foldline.

Prepare strap to be attached: with right sides together, fold on foldline and sew along one short end and the long end leaving the other short end open to turn.

Trim cap strap seam and corners to reduce bulk.  Turn right side out and press.

Pin band and brim onto front edge of cap, matching all raw edges and using notches as guide.  Baste to hold in place.  The band will hang over the rounded edge of each side.

Once pieces are basted, trim off the extra band that extends beyond the curved edge.

Baste strap to left corner of cap, matching raw edges, using pattern mark as guide.

Now, you should have the cap lining and the cap ready to sew together.

With right sides together, pin cap lining to cap starting at mark at base of cap and ending at other mark at base of cap.

Leave the space between the two marks at the base of the cap open for turning.

Sew all around cap from mark to mark.  If you are using a knit lining, sew pieces together with lining side down. The feed dogs will help keep with knit from stretching while sewing

Trim seams and corners. Turn cap right side out.

Press under seam allowance on cap and lining at opening.

Edge stitch along entire bottom edge of cap to close the opening.  My blind stitch presser foot makes it easy to stay straight and right on the edge.

Press bottom edge of cap.

Based on the size button you’d like to use, sew a buttonhole at edge of strap.  You could even use a button off the front of the flannel shirt!  Scared of buttonholes? Check out Dana’s tutorial.  Or try Velcro!

Sew on button to right side of cap using pattern mark as guide.