Winter Beanie Hat Made From Old Shearling Coat

I don't think there's anything warmer than shearling, and my favorite type of hat is a beanie so I thought I'd combine the two to make a great winter hat for just a few dollars. This started with a shearling coat that we got at a thrift store for under 10 bucks. It didn't take much to make it and in the beginning I started overcomplicating it before realizing I could get it done it about a half an hour.

To do this I used:

1 - Shearling coat (this was in great condition but left over from the 80s and not a style anyone would wear anymore)

2 - X-Acto type utility knives

3 - Some heavy duty thread

4 - Sewing needles or sewing machine

5 - Mannequin head (both to hold the hat and to keep me company)

First I started down the wrong path. I started at the top of the head with a circle and was planning on making concentric circles to make the hat get progressively larger. It was working OK until I realized that the mannequin head was significantly smaller than my head and my templates were going to be way off. I tack stitched the pieces I already made together and I could tell right away the the curvature was not going to work. I decided to start at the bottom of the hat since I know my head measurement already.

Since my head is a 24" circumference I decided to cut a rectangle out from the back of the jacket that was 24" wide. I used a curved blade on my knife to get a nice smooth cut and made a 24" by 8" rectangle.

***Important note in case you've never worked with fur or shearling!! Scissors will work to cut this but it makes a HUGE mess. The best way to but it is with a razor or utility knife from the backside (smooth, furless side). Using scissors will cut fur and leave pieces all over the place. After you've cut the pieces take them outside and shake them vigorously and all the small pieces will fall out.

I wrapped the piece around and I put a tack stitch in the bottom corners of the rectangle and check to make sure I had the right size I wanted. It seemed just right. I estimated that I wanted the hat to start curving in about 5" from the bottom. I thought that for this the best way would be to create 4 points that come in and join at the top. I sketched out a quick plan, measured out the plan on the shearling and cut it out.

With the shearling cut into my "crown" I sewed the side together. I used a sewing machine with a straight stitch. I was originally going to do a hand stitch but that idea went the way of the original template. I used a couple of scraps from cutting the points out of the rectangle to practice with different stitches and decided that the straight stitch was working best with this thickness of shearling.

Whichever way you try it, fur and leather can be tough to sew. If you do it by hand use a thimble or be prepared to have very sore fingertips. If you use a machine make sure your machine has the power to get through it without damaging the drive motor. And be sure to take your time. Going too fast will be hard on the machine and it will also be hard on the thread and break it frequently.

Once I had the side sewn the points at the top just fell right into place.

The last step was to stitch the tops together. Once this was done the hat was ready to wear! I like the way it looks with some rough edges and fur sticking out from the seams. It would be very easy to curve your stitches from the top points to the sides and then trim off excess shearling to make this look more "finished" and shaped to your head. I love functional though so I'm thrilled with this. It feels very Russian/Cossack-ish. It hasn't come off my head the whole time I wrote this Instructable!

I believe I can easily make four more hats from this jacket, two more from the large panels and one from each sleeve. Five warm and toasty hats from one $10 jacket isn't bad!

Thanks for reading and I hope you get something out of it. I am in no means a hat maker so if you have any suggestions please post them.