Drum Roll Please...

I started this post on Jan 17. I just found all of the pictures and am posting it on Jan 26.

Tadddahhhh!!!

Here it is...my first craft post!! I am trying to ease my way into this so this is a REALLY, REALLY, REALLY simple and fun project that you can do with a child, or in my case three children (quick prayer: Lord, you know that I am entering into this endeavor with the best intentions, please Lord give me the patience to endure whatever may happen during this process. Lord give me the wisdom that I may need to remove fabric glue from hair, hands faces and furniture. Please Lord don't let anyone glue their hats to the heads, hands or any other place that would cause pain when the hat has to be removed. Lord yesterday was a snow day and my nerves are fragile! This has now become a four day weekend and I only have 20 minutes worth of patience left. HELP...Me...PLEASE?? ~amen).

I don't know what the weather is like where you are...but it is COLD here in Indy. I mean REALLY cold! So what better way to spend the day than inside crafting with the small people

in your life? (Stop laughing and asking yourself "Is she crazy? I can think of 12 better ways to spend a cold day than crafting with the kids.")

Today we are going to make super warm fleece hats using very few supplies. Now as much

as I would LOVE to take credit for this idea...I can't. This idea was inspired by something

that I saw while watching Nick Jr. with Naomi (my five year old). These hats are cute...but yours will be cute times 1,458.

Have fun and ENJOY!! PLEASE send comments, questions and pictures...

1. The supplies

You will need basic items: scissors, fleece, measuring tape and fabric glue. Optional items are: fabric paint, acrylic rhinestones, iron on patches, flower petals and bells.

The most important item needed is the glue. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Fabri-Tac. I have been using it for years and have NEVER been disappointed. Fabri-Tac is not cheap. I got this bottle at Michael's for $6.99 but...a little does go a looong way.

2. Measure around the kiddo's noggin

Use your tape measure and measure around the child's head. Whatever number you get, add 1 inch to it. For example, if you get 22 inches add one inch and cut 23 inches. This extra inch if for the seam allowance when we glue the hat closed.

3. Time to cut

For this hat (pic. on left). I came up with a measurement of 22 inches. I added 1 inch for the seam allowance and now I need to cut a piece of fabric that is 23 inches wide. To do this, I am cutting on the fold. So I took 23 and divided it by 2 and came up with 11.5. So I measured from the fold 11.5 inches and then I cut. For the length (pic. on right), I used 19 inches, which turned out to be WAY long so you may want to use 15 inches instead. We put a small cuff on our hats and I still had to cut about 2 inches off the top. PLEASE do not stress out about cutting straight lines...this is a VERY forgiving craft...reasonably straight will be just fine!!

4. Gluing

I used a piece of paper under the fabric (left) where I was applying glue. Apply a large thread of glue down the majority of the fabric. Leave about 5 inches from the top without glue (I will explain why later). When applying glue, DO NOT put the glue on the edge of the fabric. Go over about 1/8th of an inch and apply glue (this allows room for the glue to spread out when you overlap the fabric and apply pressure (center). For the cuff (right), I simply folded the fabric up twice and applied glue to the final fold. Again, DO NOT apply glue to the edge, leave room for it to expand when you press it down.

5. Drying and Decorating

Keep a piece of paper or cardboard inside the hats and allow them to dry for about an hour. After an hour, they are ready to decorate. On the left is a picture of Naomi using fabric glue to decorate her hat. On the right, Nichole is showing you what her finished product looks like. Let the fabric paint dry overnight, to be safe. After it has dried, you are ready to close the top of your hat. I used some scrap pieces of fleece. Each of these pieces (see below) allowed me to finish 2 hats. So I was able to finish all 4 hats with these two scraps.

Although I have no pictures...the tying off part is simple. Cinch the hat at the top and then use a 6-8 inch piece of scrap fleece to tie a TIGHT knot around the top of the hat. Once the knot has been tied, you are ready to begin cutting the top fabric to make the pom-pom. Cut the fabric above the knot into 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips all the way down to the knot. Continue cutting until the top of the hat looks like a pom-pom. The reason that you did not glue the hat completely closed in step 4 is because it is VERY difficult to cut the glued seam into strips. If you left 5 inched open at the top and still encounter the glued seam when you cut the top, simply cut on both sides of the seam and then go down to the knot and cut that stiff flap off. If this does not make sense...email me and I will explain again.

6. The finished products...

I further embelished Naomi's (right) hat by adding bells to some of the flaps and she added acrylic rhinestones. Alexander's hat is plain and ANTM's (Americas Next Top Model) hat has acrylic rhinestones too.

Not done yet...Now, for those of you who know me...you know I ain't (yes I said "ain't") 'bout to let something this cute go on and not be a part of it...So I made myself a hat too...and, OF COURSE, mine had to be the CUTEST....

My Hat...

You like?? I decided to let America's Next Top Model, Nicole, model my hat...

We had a TON of this camo fleece leftover and I decided to make myself a hat too...but it had to be "girled up" a bit, so I added the flower. You can't see it here, but there is a crystal in the center of the flower and a leaf on each side.

I will not bore you with the details on how I added the flower...unless you want me to. If you do, I can email it or post a blog about it...Let me know...

I hope that you have enjoyed my first "Crafting with Quita" project...There will be more to follow...



~Marquita

PS. I am not sure how many of you are familiar with blogging...but...I am new to this and have had/am having MANY problems with formatting this (pictures will shift, text color/size will change). What I see and like, is not always what winds up being posted in the blogosphere. So I apologize in advance for how this might look once it gets to you. 'Cause right now it looks PERFECT, but who knows what will happen once I hit "send..." (quick prayer: Dear Lord...It took me longer to format this than it did to make the hats...Why Lord, WHY...PLEASE let all of my HARD work not be lost once I hit send...PLEASE...~amen)