DIY Tweed Newsboy Hat x2

In this week’s quick post I’ve turned my hand to sewing hats! I’ve made myself a tweed newsboy hat, not once, but twice and a matching scarf too! I had sew much fun making these and I think I’m getting ever so slightly obsessed because I’m planning more 🙂

I blame Karen (AKA @intostitches on IG) because I saw her version of this pattern on Instagram and I felt instantly inspired to have a go myself. The pattern is the Newsboy hat by Butterfly Tree on Etsy. Sizes go from small to extra large and it’s described as fully reversible although I just lined both of mine. You can use all kinds of medium weight fabrics and it’s also an ideal candidate to upcycle fabrics of things like jackets and coats.  

I actually bought both of my fabrics. The tweed with the reds, greens and teal tones came from Ditto Fabrics and the neutral-toned mix came from Truro Fabrics. Both are quite prone to fraying though so a bit of care was needed with making up.

DIY Tweed Newsboy Hat

Ok, so the making process was pretty straightforward and kudos to Butterfly Tree for lovely instructions with nice clear photos for each step. They really were very good. 

The main crown consists of 6 bias-cut segments which are all interfaced and each seam is topstitched to one side. The fact that the pieces are on the bias means that they ease nicely into the band to create that lovely ‘mushroom’ effect.

The hat peak is interfaced with a stiff Pellon interfacing. The instructions for it actually ask you to use Pellon that has glue on both sides but mine that came from my stash had the glue on one side only, though I managed fine with it despite my fray-prone fabrics. 

Once the main fabric and lining are both made up separately they all get joined together at the peak and band area and the finishing touch is a short piece of elastic that gets inserted in the centre back of the band allowing for a bit of wearing ease and comfort.

When I bought the neutral-toned tweed, I had to get the minimum amount of a half metre (you only really need about 30com) which meant that with careful cutting I had a nice big chunk of fabric left to make a scarf. It was just a matter of pulling strands of tweed yarn out of the sides and each end to make some fringing. Then I zig-zagged next to the fringing to secure it and voila…a matching set!  I’m Winter-ready folks!

I think it’s safe to say that I’m a little bit smitten with my new hats and I’ve already worn them out and about and felt fab..and of course, nice and cosy. 

Ooh, actually, at this point I feel like I should just mention pattern matching…or lack of…hehe! I will fess up right here and now and say that when I cut out the green/red/teal mix tweed I totally and utterly forgot that I might have been able to match the pattern, though it might have driven me batty in the process anyway. Then when It came to making the neutral one I knew that I wanted to make a matching scarf so I didn’t even bother entertaining the idea of matching as I wanted to conserve fabric. So there ya go. Bothered am I? Nope, lol!

I loved my first foray into hat making and perhaps you feel inspired to give it a go too? Let me know in the comments.

And before I go I want to take this opportunity to say happy Thanksgiving to those of you that celebrate it. I know that a lot of you lovely lot reading my blog are from the US and so I’m sending you my good wishes for a happy and peaceful time. I hope you get to spend it with loved ones if you are able xxx

Thanks for reading. See you soon!