191. Read All About It! Newsboy Cap: Free Pattern + Tutorial

Being invited by the ever-creative Dana to participate in Celebrate the Boy month gave me an opportunity to revisit one of my favorite topics: my 6-year-old son's head.  I've traced the story back to labor: I checked into the hospital when I was 6 cm dilated, at which point the doctor remarked that, based on my baby’s head size, the baby would weigh at least 8 pounds. I was stunned and scared! Hours later I was surprised not only by my baby’s gender (BOY) but also by his 8-pound baby head on a 6-pound baby body.  Mmmm hmmmm.

After the initial head pointiness from that trip into the outside world, my son’s head bounced back into admirably round form.  It has always been enormous, enormously round, and an enormous source of pride for me, with its glossy, healthy hair and housing the most amazing, wondrous brain!  Sometimes I am allowed views into the brain in that head, with thoughts both fantastical (“When I grow up I am going to buy my own chocolate factory”) and mystifying (“If I had a turtle, I would punch it in the face”).

I will always remember his first store-bought driving cap, allowing me to Celebrate the Enormous Head.  Given that, it was exciting to be invited by Dana to participate in Celebrate the Boy and find a way to share the joys of adorning our beloved boys' heads.  When I read that newsboy caps were traditionally made of 8 panels, I scoffed at the wimpiness of the commercially made 6-panelled caps, and I vowed that our handmade caps would return to the illustrious glory of 8 panels. Don’t our boys deserve that???

Of course they do, but after drafting from scratch and sewing three total samples to get to this point, I only have a cap pattern to offer for ages 6-8.  Tiny changes in the pattern make a big difference, and I need more time to grade and fit for smaller heads.  So stay tuned for a cap pattern I'll share in the future for ages 2-4 or something like that.  Or, if you're brave and try your hand at grading it for other sizes, please let us know where we can download your version.

Keep reading for the Read All About It! Newsboy Cap: Free Pattern + Tutorial.

Download the pattern (PDF) here.  The tutorial below is also on Flickr if you prefer that way of navigating through.

A few notes:

* The crown is the part of the hat that hugs the head, and the brim is the part that sticks away from the head. We will use these two terms a lot in the tutorial

* Sew with 1/4" seam allowance, except where noted (the end)
* Try not to over-handle your crown pieces, before or after sewing, as there is a strong tendency for the fabric to stretch
* I used a men's sport coat and some cotton remnants for the lining.  If you want to buy yardage for this, you'll need 1/3 yard for the outer hat, 1/3 yard for the lining (a bit more if you think the fabric will pre-shrink), and some longish scraps of interfacing.

Cut:

* 8 crown pieces from outer fabric ("self") - strongly suggest cutting on the bias!

* 8 crown pieces from lining

* 2 brim pieces from self

* 1 or 2 brim pieces of heavy craft weight fusible interfacing (you choose depending on how stiff your interfacing is and how stiff you want your brim)

ASSEMBLE THE CROWN

1. Take two crown pieces, right sides together, matching notches, and stitch along one long side.  Press seam open.  Align another crown piece, right sides together, and stitch along one long side so your crown now has three pieces.  Press seam open.  Add a fourth crown piece the same way.  Press seam open.

2. Repeat with remaining four crown pieces.  These don't look like two halves of the crown, but they are -- they are just flopping around differently in the photo.

3. With right sides facing, sew the two halves of the crown together along the long edges in one continuous stitch.  Press seam open.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 with all 8 pieces of crown lining.

ASSEMBLE THE BRIM

1. Trim 1/4" off the outer edge of interfacing.  Apply interfacing to each brim piece.

2. With right sides together, sew brim along outer edge.  Turn right side out and press.  Baste raw edge together.

3. Topstitch outer edge of brim.

ASSEMBLE THE HAT

1. Place brim on crown self, right sides facing, matching notches on brim to seam lines on crown.  Baste 1/2" from raw edge.

2. Place hat inside crown lining, right sides of crown self and crown lining together.  Starting @1 1/2" from center back, stitch IN A 1/2" SEAM around perimeter of cap, leaving about 3" open.

3. Turn hat inside out.  Roll the hat toward the lining, press neatly, and topstitch around perimeter of the cap.

4. It helps to secure the brim to the cap so it doesn't get uber-floppy in all the wrong ways with a quick hand stitch.

This hat is on the full, floppy side, sometimes resulting in a 70's Fat Albert look, but dang, I sure like it anyway!  Now go find a big ol' handsome head to put that hat on!