Fleece Turkey Hat Tutorial

Last week I asked Delsin if he'd like me to put a turkey on a long sleeve shirt for him and he asked me to make him a turkey hat instead.  I didn't think it could be done till I saw something similar on another website.  I didn't make this one at all like the other one except that it's from fleece and is a turkey, so I decided to do a tutorial of my journey to make this hat.  

It didn't turn out quite as cute as what I'd pictured, in my mind, but it gets the job done.

I especially like the real feathers.  Adds a nice touch.

To make your own:

Start off by cutting two rectangles.  I cut mine 10.5 inches by 7.5 inches for my 6 year old.

Fold them in half width wise and round the edges of one side.  (The rounded edge side will be the top of the hat.)  I wish I had rounded mine starting a little lower and making it more narrow near the top of the head.

Next, cut the ear flap pieces.  4 rectangle pieces 3 x 3.5 inches.  Round the corners on one short side for each rectangle.

I bought this feather trim from a craft store and cut 12.5 inches of it for the top of my hat.  If you make yours more narrow at the top you'll need a shorter piece.

Now you want to cut your facial pieces.  I hope that you can tell how to cut them by my photo here.  Be sure to sew the pieces to the right side of your fleece.  You'll need a piece of stabilizer for the back of the white eyes fabric.  I made the pupils by using my satin stitch (zigzag stitch on the widest setting and closest length setting).  I turned the fabric under the needle to make like a star or circle in stitches.

The beak is a long narrow triangular strip of yellow fleece.  It's only secured at the top, with a satin stitch.

The finger (that's the red thing between the eyes and the beak) is cut from red fleece and secured the same way as the beak.

Put the right sides together and sew down the sides of the hat.

Put the strip of feathers inside the hat so that the edge of the strip is sandwiched between both hat pieces and the raw edges are together.  As seen below.

Now stitch through all the thickness.  You'll need to use a 100/16 needle and go slow because you can still break it on those feathers.

  Stitch 1/4 inch from the raw edges and again 5/8 inch from the raw edge.

Now we want to make the ear flaps.  Just put two pieces right sides together and stitch.

Turn right side out.

I decided at the last minute to add some turkey feet to the bottom of the flaps.  I simply cut them out of yellow fleece and then satin stitched them onto the bottoms of the ear flaps.  Then sew the flaps onto the inside of the hat matching the seams to the center of the end of the flap.  You want the flap to be inside the bottom edge about 1/4 inch or somewhere around there.

Now turn the whole thing right side out and Voila! It's done.

He loves it!
Let me know if you have any questions.  I love comments too!