It’s that time of the year again when the Instagram challenge Sew Japanese in January is hosted by @bloglessanna and @craftyjane_makes, and I do love this one as it makes me get out my Japanese sewing books and make plans!

I actually thought about what I might need, rather than want, and I felt that a really wearable hat with a big brim that covered my ears and neck would be useful. And so it came to pass…

I wasn’t quite sure of the sizing so I used a couple of big scraps rather than the good stuff, and it is too big, but I managed to sort that out, details later. The good coordination with my dress was purely coincidental – it’s just what I was wearing at the time. The hat is hot off the machine and on my head and photographed with no styling at all.

The back is quite long and it has a deliciously big bow. I really like the shape of the brim. It’s also reversible, and I do so love a reversible hat, so that helped in the decision making.

I haven’t quite decided which way I like best.

I did have a couple of issues with the hat. First of all it was too big and I couldn’t really tell until it was completely finished. Apart from taking it completely apart and remaking it, I decided to only slightly take it apart and insert a piece of elastic around the widest part of my head – basically where the ties are anchored. This worked perfectly, but it’s a bit wrinkled at the back where the elastic is pulling it in.

Then I got a bee in my bonnet (hehe!) about the floppy fabric and thought that perhaps I should have interfaced it to give it a bit more body. Gah! More partial unpicking and retrofitting of interfacing in the front section. This was accomplished without too much swearing but when I wandered out to show Mark he told me that it now “looked funny”! What? So now I had to unpick it AGAIN and remove aforementioned interfacing.

I think it’s fine now!

This pattern is from Travel Wardrobe by Sasahara Noriko, which I bought in Sydney when I was there for Sydney Frocktails. Seems like a lifetime ago!

And this is the hat Pattern N in the book. Any resemblance to mine is purely coincidental!

This one is a nicer shape as it doesn’t have the elastic through the middle.

I realise that I didn’t blog the dress, so thought I would give a quick update. It’s the Esme dress from Lotta Jansdotter, Everyday Style. I added the pockets that I had put on the Lotta Jansdotter Owyn shorts as I love the shape. I hacked the sleeves using a sleeve design from a Burda magazine (T-shirt 118 from 6/2019) that my friend Katherine gave me. The fabric is from Knitwit here in Perth. Here’s a better photo of the sleeves.

This is already proving a really useful hat and I intend to make another one, shaving a bit off the size and using sturdier fabric.

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