Enchante! Lemon Yellow Beret!

During this quarantine lockdown time has been slipping by so fast! Autumn is almost here and my stockpile of cozy accessories is looking... barren. So when I saw that Instructables was running a rainbow contest I knew I finally had a use for my spare yellow wool! Best of all it took less than 30 minutes to make this classic beret.

You will need:

• 1/2 yard of yellow wool felt. (acrylic felt can also be used.)
• Flexible measuring tape. (or string and a ruler.)
• yellow all-purpose thread
• various sizes of round bowls, pots, etc...
• pins
• Marker

Optional:

• A sewing machine is very helpful.
• decorative notions like pom-poms, buttons, etc...

Take your flexible measuring tape (or string) and measure your head from the base of the skull to your forehead. I wound up with a measurement of 23 inches. That's 58.42 cm for you metric system folks. Divide that by pi (~3.14) to get the diameter.

Now is the time to go on a field trip around your house for a circle with the same diameter as your head measurement and a circle that's approximately 12" in diameter. Technically you could use a plotting compass but that's way less fun. If you need to entertain kids in the house right now this makes an excellent scavenger hunt.

Once you have your circles trace two of the bigger ones onto your felt and in the middle of one of these trace your smaller circle. Cut these out along with a rectangle that's 1.5" (3.8 cm) wide and as long as the head measurement you took +1" (2.54 cm) for seam allowance.

On the last step I mistakenly used a bigger pot lid than I meant to so I cut it a bit smaller. This is fine if you do this because felt is very forgiving and stretchy.

Using a simple straight stitch start by sewing the ends of the band together half an inch from the edge as shown. Pin the band to the bottom hat circle with any marks facing outwards and, with the seam open as shown, sew half and inch from the edge. Cut v-shaped notches every half inch or so in the excess fabric. Make sure not to cut the seam itself.

Line up the big circle with the piece you just sewed as shown above. It helps to pin the edges. This time you want to sew 0.4" or 1 cm. from the edge for a less bulky seam. If you're using a sewing machine you can use the edge of the presser foot as a guide.

The last step is to turn your hat inside out and tuck the band inside. (You don't want the band visible, it's there for the fit.) Now is the time to add any buttons, pom-poms, or other decorations if you don't want to leave yours plain like mine.

Enjoy your new beret! If you liked this Instructable please consider voting for me in the Rainbow contest and if you post a picture on Instagram I'd love to see it! Tag me @love_sophie_c