Mario/Luigi Hats

Can you tell what Adam wants to be for Halloween?

"It's Luigi time!"

I know it's early for Halloween, with back to school and all, but I wasn't sure I could make these hats. Luckily, my friend Natassia sent me this awesome tutorial on the Groovy Kids blog. (Thanks Tassia!)

Go check it out now, I'll wait. These were quick & easy. I was able to make two during nap time.

I'm not going to retype up everything she did. However, I made a few changes that made it work better for us.

For the hat: For the kid hat, I went smaller and used a 10 inch dinner plate for the circle of the hat. I used a 12 inch bowl for the grown-up hat. Stick with the 4 1/2 interior circle -- seriously, the fleece stretches like crazy.

I wanted the brim a little larger than the tutorial. I traced the brim of a hat onto a cereal box and cut it out for the foundation inside the brim. I also used this as my template on the fleece fabric. I cut the cardboard about a quarter inch smaller than the fleece all the way around.

Then I gently curved by bending it through my fingers.

For the circle: (I just just used the inexpensive white felt rectangle, instead of buying white fleece. It was a bit see-through, so I used wonder under to double the layer.) I cut a rectangle of white felt. I traced a cup that was about 3 1/2 inches diameter. Then iron on a square of double sided fusible webbing/wonder under to the back side behind the circle I traced.

Have you noticed wonder under can be a beast to remove?! Open your scissors and score an X into the paper backing. It should come off easier for you. Don't go too hard or you'll go through your fabric. Fold over your white felt, and iron so the wonder under seals in place. You should have a double thickness now. Cut out the circle.

Use some of your scraps to make the letter. Iron a piece of wonder under on the back side. Draw your letter. Remember since this is the back, you'll want to draw the letter backwards for Luigi's "L." Luckily, Mario's "M" is the same both ways. Go ahead and cut out the letter. Remove the paper backing, and center it on the white circle. Iron it in place. This should hold it long enough for you to sew.

Sew around the M as close to the edge as you can get.

Okay, moving on to the rest of the hat. I'm going to assume you read the tutorial from above, and you have cut out and sewed everything else like she said. Go ahead and stick your curved cardboard into the brim of the hat. Trim the cardboard if it sticks out anywhere.

Sew the back of your brim closed.

Now for the M: Line up the bottom of your circle with the bottom of the line of the hole of the hat. Pin in place. Make sure not to catch both layers of hat. You should be able to put your hand in between the two layers of hat.

Switch to white top thread. Move the rest of the top of your hat aside, so you aren't sewing your hat together. Sew around the edge of your circle.

Now, put center the brim of your hat with the circle. Pin in place. Sew around the edge of the brim to secure it to the hat.

Supplies:
1/2 yard of green or red fleece
1 white rectangle of felt
1/4 yard of wonder under/double sided fusible webbing - medium weight
thin cardboard (cereal box)

1/2 yard & 1 white felt will make two hats. I think I could have folded the fleece differently to use 1/4 yard...but I couldn't do the math in my head with two busy kids at the store.