Esther’s Brompton Hat

As it continues to get colder, I have winter accessories on my mind. I haven’t made a lot of accessories in the past, but the beauty of not needing to fit my bust, waist and hips was too appealing. 

When I received this month’s fabric, I wasn’t sure what to make but I was certain I wanted to make an accessory that would take me through the cold months. This was my first time sewing fleece so I wasn’t immediately certain of what to make and if I had to make any changes in my sewing. But I decided to go in head on and see where things take me. 

I had 0.5m of fleece fabric and a desire to make an accessory but as accessories are not common place in my sewing practice, I had to take some time to think what to make. My first thought process was a head accessory. 

I wasn’t sure which head accessory I wanted to make but Hayley suggested I check the Foldline. That was a wonderful starting point for me. However, I wasn’t completely sold on any of the patterns so I went to Pinterest and I started thinking of making a beret. There were a good variety of patterns and instructions on how to make one but still I wasn’t sure. 

So I went to Instagram, I spent some time looking for inspiration and I found something. Sewing is not always difficult for me, but deciding what to sew is sometimes the hard part. Anyway, I saw that Jen (@jenlegg_teescreatives) had made a Brompton hat by Fiona Hesford and I fell in love with the pattern. 

The Brompton hat is a Baker Boy hat, something about this hat just takes me to Paris. The pattern was relatively easy to make. I finally got the opportunity to use the fabric glue that has been in the cupboard for a long time. The pattern uses both fleece interfacing and regular interfacing. The pattern comes in three sizes – small, medium and large. I made size medium and it fit well. 

The fabric was great to manipulate. Cutting it out was wonderfully easy. I used fabric glue to apply fleece interfacing to this fabric and adhering it was nice and easy. The pattern requires a lining and I used a fat quarter from a previous SewHayleyJane box. 

In an ideal world, I’d say it’s better to line a hat with satin or silk to give your hair the best treatment but there were no issues with the fabric quarter. I enjoyed sewing this hat, the instructions were clear and easy to follow. My tip is to use masking or washi tape to mark the fabric pieces and keep the pieces marked so you’re not confused on what piece is what. 

I can definitely see this pattern going through the winter. It’s quite nice to give my head some coverage as it gets colder.