Sew a Christmas reindeer hat for a child

You will need…

● Brown fake fur – 30cm x 80cm
● Cream fake fur – a scrap for the nose (or you could use fleece scraps)
● Fleece for lining – 30cm x 80cm
● Fleece for antlers and ears – we used the scraps left over from the lining
● Buttons – for the eyes and the nostrils
● Stuffing – for the antlers

Cutting out

Print out the pattern page (see page 2 for image 1 and image 1a - click here for the template).

Cut out two main hat pieces in brown fake fur and two main hat pieces in fleece (for the lining).

Cut out one cream fake fur nose.

Cut out 4 antlers in fleece.

Cut out the ears – two in fleece and two in fake fur (image 2).

Stitching the main hat

Take your two main hat outer pieces (fake fur).  Fold them in half with right sides together and stitch from the centre top down the short seam (image 3). Make sure you stitch a gentle curve – you don’t want any sharp corners or your head will look lumpy. These two pieces will form the back and the front of the hat.

Stitching the hat lining

Take your two main hat lining pieces and fold each one in half with right sides together. From the centre top, stitch down the short seam with a gentle curve.

Open them out and with right sides together, pin and stitch the main curved edge (the ear to ear seam) 1cm away from the raw edge (image 4).

Stitching the antlers and the ears

Take two antler pattern pieces and with right sides together, pin and straight stitch 0.5cm from the raw edge.  Reinforce the the beginning and end of your seam with a back stitch – but leave the bottom of the antlers open.

Repeat with the other antler.

Take a fleece ear piece and a fake fur ear piece and with right sides together stich 0.5cm from the raw edge.

Repeat with the other ear pieces.

Turn the antlers and ears the right way round so the seams are inside. The antlers are fiddly to turn, so use a knitting needle or a wooden skewer to help.

Stuff your antlers

Take little bits of stuffing and start pushing them up into the antlers (your knitting needle will come in handy here too). You want them to be fairly firm and well-filled as otherwise they will flop over when attached to the hat. Don’t stuff right down to the raw edges of the opening as you will need to be able to get it through your machine!

Pinning the antlers and ears into place

Lay one side of your fake fur hat down on a surface and with the fur side uppermost pin the antlers and ears around the top edge so they are pointing downwards (image 6). Using a large straight stitch (we used the biggest one possible) stay stitch into place. If your machine finds this difficult, you can always hand stitch this bit.

Next pin the two fake fur hat pieces together (right sides matching) – and stitch 1cm away from the edge, reinforcing at the beginning and end with a backstitch (image 7).

Sewing on the eyes and nose

Stitch your two button nostrils to the cream fake fur nose piece.

Pin the nose onto the hat and stitch into place.

Stitch on the eyes. We made ours a little wonky on purpose.

Stitching the hat together

Turn your main hat inside out (so the right side is inside). 

Turn your fleece lining so the right side is out.

Insert your lining into your main hat (the two right sides should be together).

Pin round the bottom and stitch 1cm from the raw edge leaving a 10cm gap at the back of the hat - you’ll sew this up later (image 8).

When you’ve stitched around the edge, begin pushing the main hat through the gap that you’ve left in your seam. It may be a struggle to get the antlers through, but persevere and you’ll do it.

With a needle and thread, handstitch the gap closed.

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