Welder's Hat: I found a free pattern!

So here I am with NO MAKE-UP wearing a welding cap and trying to take photos of myself while posing in front of our big picture window.  The neighbors, leaving for work, pause for a moment as they try and figure out what the heck I'm doing.  I'm a 35 year old SAHM of two, and I can take pics of myself in full view of the neighbors if I want to, I tell myself.  I'm just so excited to share this cool new free pattern that I found. I feel like there is no time for mascara and waiting until the afternoon sun is high enough to shoot photos in the back yard.  This needs to be done now.  So there you have it. ;-)

[Photo Credit: www.skinnermetalproducts.com]

Perhaps you'd appreciate a little background first?  If not, scroll down a couple paragraphs because I'm feeling wordy this morning!  To begin I should tell you that my father is a welder as well as my brother and a couple of my cousins.  That is how I came to be searching the web for a sewing pattern in the first place.

One mark of a good and safe welder's cap is that it is made of 100% cotton (linen may work as well).  That makes sense because we all know that synthetics like nylon and polyester melt when exposed to heat and flame.  Also, as you can imagine, welding is a hot job and a breathable, absorbent material like cotton is preferable.  One's hair and back of neck are exposed when wearing a welder's protective mask.  The cap part of a weldering hat is made to stop the sparks from burning hair while the soft, short bill is turned around backwards to cover and protect the neck.  And lastly, the adjustable halo straps of a welding mask are made that much more comfortable when cushioned by a welder's hat.

And besides all that, I think welding hats are cute!  What do you think?  Can you imagine what they would look like with a few fabric flowers, yo-yos, buttons, and broaches to fancy them up a bit?  Welding hats could really be fashionable.  The cap part is deep so it will cover a lot of square inches of hair.  It was a little too deep for me and my pony tail so I folded the back of the hat band up in the back.  This revealed a peek at the fabric of the reverse side and let me wear my pony tail a bit higher.  I think it's a cute look.

OK, now onto the the DIY part of this post!  I found a w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l FREE pattern online.  Special thanks to fellow flickr member Seamingly Simple!  You can find her ingenious pattern HERE and the instructions HERE.  Or you can find it on PatternReview.com HERE.  Did I mention the hat is REVERSIBLE?  No?  Well, it is and that's another pretty cool thing, right?

What you'll need:

1. The printable pattern.
2. 1/2 yard of fabric. (1/4 yard for each side since it's reversible)
3. A scrap of thin quilt batting OR interfacing for the bill.  I didn't use either in the hat I made for myself because the fabrics I chose were of a heavier weight.  I used Craft Bond fusible interfacing in the bill of the hat I made for my son.
4. Coordinating thread.  (contrasting thread might be fun for the top-stitching)
5. A little time.  The first hat took me an hour start to finish, but second one took me only 30 min.

Some tips that I found helpful:

• Cutting the bill fabric on the bias is not necessary, but I like the look and how it lays nice and flat on the curved seam.
• The instructions concerning construction of the crown were confusing to me.  I ended up making 2 bowl-shaped caps, attached the bill to one of the bands, and then attached the bands to the caps.  From there I stitched the two hats together, right sides together, around the the bottom of the band.  I left an opening and pulled the right sides through just like when I attach the lining to a purse.
• I trimmed the seam allowances of the curved seam of the bill with pinking shears.  That just seemed easier than cutting out a bunch of little notches to ease the curve.
• The "scale bar" on the printable pattern is ingenious!  Just so you know, if you print it out at 100%, the scale bar measures 10cm and the pattern is perfect for a 25" head.  If you print it out at 96%, the scale bar measures 9.6cm, at 93% it measures 9.3cm and so on.  You can totally customize this pattern to fit ANY head size.  

My son likes his hat, but suggests I make another one for him using "tougher, boyish" fabric!

This hat reminds me of a page boy cap, one of my fave styles.  Here are a couple page boys I found online.  I bet the welder's hat could be modified a bit the emulate one of these:

[source]
Here's a similar hat that I found from Nordstrom.
Shorten the bill of the welder's hat and make it out of tweed?

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This is a pageboy hat from TJ Maxx.
Make some fabric buttons to decorate your welder's hat?

Happy crafting and big hugs from Montana,

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