The Bucket Hat

Readers, do you like bucket hats?  For summer, they're my preferred headwear, though I'm very picky about them and rarely find ones I like.  I've yet to make one myself.

I've owned the red one up top for -- I kid you not -- twenty years.  I picked it up at a thrift store on Martha's Vineyard on a day visit in 1992.   Here I am wearing it the day I bought it; it was redder then.  It's made of sailcloth canvas and is incredibly durable. 



Here's my second-favorite bucket hat, which I picked up at a local thrift store at least a dozen years ago.  It's made from imported cotton madras and actually has a union label.





What's unusual about the madras hat is that except for the brim, it's made from a single layer of fabric (as opposed to two, which is more common) and the seam allowances are finished with rayon bias tape.



I want to make a few bucket hats to wear this summer, just like the ones I own.  But I don't want to go to the trouble and expense of buying a pattern.  There are a few out there, but not a lot.







Lilly Daché, anyone?  (That yellow number looks less like a bucket and more like a wastepaper basket.)



There are also some free downloadable bucket hat patterns for kids available which I can modify.



One of the distinguishing features of a good bucket hat (for me) is an oval top.  My head is oval, and a perfectly round hat looks juvenile.  Notice how the flower-print hat on the right, which my old friend Brian gave me (he made it from Simplicity 5581) has a round top.  On me, it looks silly and not only because it's made from two vintage Seventies sheets.  The sides are also too wide, imo.





I prefer a soft hat with a firm brim, and many are either too firm all around, or have very floppy brims.  Or are too heavy.  Or all polyester.  (Like I said, I'm picky.)

Readers, have you ever made a bucket hat for yourself or perhaps for a child?  Was it hard?  It seems like it would be pretty straightforward.  Of course, many RTW hats have metal grommets, but you can find kits to make those pretty easily.

Any advice and/or recommendations?

Do you wear bucket hats yourself and/or like them on others?  (Be honest.)

Happy Sunday, everybody!