Halloween Costume, Part 1

I was asked to make a Halloween costume for a delightful 18 month old girl.  Her mother came up with the idea of Madeline and the nun as a mother/daughter combination.  If you aren't familiar with Madeline, she's the star of her own beloved series of children's books.

In all of the books, Madeline wears a yellow hat with a black ribbon and a blue outfit with a shoulder cape.  I decided to start with the hat.

The pictures depict a flat-crowned hat.   I looked hard in my pattern collection for something similar, but didn't find anything that worked.  So, I made my own pattern.

It starts with a 7.5" diameter circle.  I drew it in PowerPoint and printed it.  With 1/4" seams, the circumference of the hat crown is 22".

Here, I am cutting the brim pieces.  I measured out 2 1/4" from the circle, and then made a torus (doughnut shape) 2 1/2" wide.  There are two brim pieces, for the top and bottom.  The crown of the hat is just a rectangle 3" x 22 1/2".  Here's all the pieces, two each of the brim, crown, and top.

To make the brim stiff and stick out straight from the hat, I used an iron-on interfacing on BOTH pieces of the brim.  They are then sewn together with a 1/4" seam, inverted, pressed, and top stitched.

The crowns are each sewn together on the short sides, then sewn to the top.  The result is two crown and top assemblies.  One of these will be the outside, the other the lining.

I wasn't completely sure of the right head measurement, and it will even change in the next couple of months.  I added some elastic to the inside, sewing it to the seam allowance.  This will let the hat fit a range of head sizes.  The elastic is at the back of the hat.

Now the lining is hand sewn to the crown/brim seam allowance, completely hiding the elastic.

The finishing touch is the black ribbon, also hand stitched to the hat to keep it in place.  There's long tails that can be tied in a bow.

Come back next week for another piece of this fun costume!