Oliver + S Bucket Hats

A couple weeks ago we took a tour of my kids' new school.  We live in Southern California and the schools here are very open air; all of the classrooms open to the outside and the cafeteria is outdoors. They spend a big chunk of their day in the sun and putting sunscreen on them before they leave for school is not enough.

One of the first places that we visited was the preschool/kindergarten playground that my son will be using.  There was a large tree shading the play structure and the snack tables had a little roof over them to protect the kids.  This is exactly what my super pale child needs.

Then we walked over to the 1st-3rd grade playground and just looking at it hurt my eyes.  So much sun and absolutely no shade.  My other super pale child was going to have a problem.

Both of my kids have recently grown out of their bucket hats, so the Oliver + S Bucket Hat (free!) pattern was just what we needed.

I measured their heads and my daughter's was 20.5" which is between the medium and large sizes so I went with the large.  There is a little wiggle room but I'm glad I went with the larger size.

The fabric is Petal from Robert Kaufman.  She likes the outer print, but has become partial to the lining print.  Luckily the hat is reversible. 

The pattern is pretty easy and quick.  The only thing that I didn't love is that the last step involves some hand sewing (not my favorite) but it wasn't too bad.

My son's head measured 21.5" (it is huge) which is bigger than the large size.  Once I made my daughter's hat I tried it on my son and . . . it was too small.  Not by much, but it was a little tight.

I wasn't really sure how to resize the pattern since I haven't exactly made a lot of hats, so I decided to make a version where I sewed the seam allowances as 1/4" instead of a 1/2".  The pattern has you trim them down to 1/4" anyway.

And it worked! I used home decor fabric so I skipped the interfacing on the brim, but I should have kept it since his hat ended up a little floppy.  The fabric is leftover from his curtains and he thought that was awesome.  The lining is Robert Kaufman yarn dyed Essex in Indigo (available here or here).

Both of these hats have been going to school in their backpacks and getting used a recess and we haven't had a sunburn yet!