What does one do on a rainy day???

Make a sun hat, of course!! Molly has been in need of noggin protection so I used some scraps to try out a bonnet pattern. I added a chin strap (which I need to add some little plastic slidey thingies to) and had to get fudgey with some boo-boos, but I think it came out pretty well. My children have freakishly large heads so I skimped on the seam allowance and made it 1/4" instead of 5/8. Why is the seam allowance 5/8 anyway?? That seams (tee-hee) like a waste of fabric when most of the time you are asked to trim it anyway. I am serger obsessed, so I don't need to do the trimming, but still. Seems like a waste and I rarely abide by that rule. I would rather have something roomy than sit there and trim silly seam allowance.

Because of my blatent disregard for seam allowance, the back of the hat didn't quite line up, so I added an elastic gather to close the gap. Worked out lovely, but here is my favorite recovered blunder... One of these seams is not like the other:

As a highly distracted mother of three who often thinks, "Oh, they are being so peaceful, I'll just pop into the office and do some sewing," and then has WW3 errupt on the couch because someone touched something that someone else was playing with four hours ago and someone needs juice this INSTANT... breathe... I made a woopsie-doodles and sewed two of the six seams backwards. Good thing, though, that they were across from eachother, so I made it into a design feature by topstitching some trim that I've had for seriously about ten years, waiting for the right project. What else are you supposed to do with a yard of random trim?? I ended up using the ends of it for the ties, so it looks like it continues through the brim. I'm wicked smaht.

Yeah, I just like to show off topstitching. I think it's probably one of my favorite garment details. If done well, it makes everything seem so 'finished.' If done poorly, well, then you should just back away from the sewing machine and let the pros handle it. Now that I have a feel for the pattern, I will make her more hats. They are fun and quick and cute and useful. Gotta love that combo. Miss Molly-cakes makes a lovely plus sized baby model and her little back rolls will be charming in the dress that matches the hat. Oh, I have some big plans for the moose-baby and summer smocks!! Completely reversible with coordinating hats and bloomers! That is, unless someone needs juice first...