Raspberry Beret - a tutorial

Okay so it's not raspberry. Maybe the little button on there could be considered raspberry. I love raspberries.

Is it a beret? Qualifies as one for me today. I don't really care, I think it's a darn cute hat. It was inspired a bit by the hats in the mini boden catalog that came to my house a few weeks ago. I just love this one and this one too . Bummer for my kids, I am just too darn tight with money to justify spending $40 on a scarf and hat set for them. So what does mommy do, makes one!

All sorts of sweater ideas have been floating around in my head anyway ever since making the button scarves a while back and now seeing that Fire Flies and Jellybeans has sweaters as the secret ingredient for this round of the Iron Crafter. I still had most of the sweater left from that project so away we went.

1. Deconstruct your sweater. Front, back, etc. If yours has a nice ribbed waist, cut that off too.

2. Take your trim piece and make sure it fits around yours or your child's head.

3. Cut the biggest circle you can from the back of you sweater. I think if I was making one of these for myself I would need a bigger sweater. This was a womens size medium. I traced a bowl so that it would be round.

4. Pin or mark the quarters of your circle. I did this by folding it in half & pinning on the lines & then folding in half the other way and pinning again.

5. Take your circle and sew a basting stitch around the outer edge. Do not back stitch and do not overlap your threads when you come back around the circle. Pull on your threads to gather.

6. Take your trim piece, fold in half lengthwise and sew the short ends together to make a circle. Fold your trim piece in half. Mark the quarter marks on your trim piece. I'm sorry I forgot to take a photo of this part.

7. Pin your trim to the circular piece pinning wrong sides together.

6. Sew, using a zigzag stitch. I had a bit of trouble with this since I was sewing three very thick layers. Go slow!


7. If you wish, trim seam edges, serge or leave raw. I left mine. We were in a hurry today.

8. Try to convince your child this hat needs a brim. Try harder. Fail. Sew on a button instead.

9. Call it a day. :)

10. Keep thinking about doing another tutorial where you make a beret type hat with a brim.

ETA: This project has been selected for the Top Ten in the Iron Crafter Competition over at Fireflies and Jellybeans. If you like it, I'd love your vote! Click on the square below and vote for the Sweater Beret!