Hats Entertainment or "Kicked the Bucket"

I've been told I have a pretty good hat head -- or is it hat face?



As a few readers have pointed out recently, however, my head is more oval than round, which I suspect means that I should stick to more oval hats.  A bucket hat is so-named because it's shaped like a bucket.  A bucket is round.





I'm beginning to think maybe I should avoid bucket hats altogether, or save them for the beach.  Maybe I've outgrown them.

Today I completed my hat.  It was not a walk in the park.  You really have to pay attention to your layers.  A machine with excellent piercing power is a must.



Grading your seam allowances can be hazardous -- Ouch! 



(Fortunately I was able to fix that.)

There's a lot of trimming and clipping involved.  You must keep trying the hat on at every stage to make sure it's going to fit.  I trimmed the inside of the brim more than once.



The pattern pieces are somewhat approximate.  The fit really depends on how much give your fabric has, and what type of interfacing you use.  I had to re-stitch the sides of the hat to make them narrower as there was too much fabric to ease into the brim (even though I had widened the brim quite a bit).

There are easier ways to finish a hat like this, imo, than what the pattern suggests. especially if you're willing to use bias tape.  This pattern has you attach the crown lining by hand -- who wants to bother with that? 

OK, so my finished hat looked like this.







All I could think of was this:



It was a nice-looking hat and well-made.



But the brim was 3/4" wider than my favorite madras hat up above.  So I took my shears to it and narrowed the brim by 3/4".









Next, I cut bias tape out of my fabric and enclosed the trimmed edge.





I like the narrower brim better.  It's much less floppy.





In closing, should I just stick to newsboy caps and fedoras?

Have a great day, everybody!