{via}

And while I loved the idea of making a hat out of an old sweater, I thought to myself, who has sweaters lying around that are not cute enough to wear but cute enough to cut up and turn into something else cute?  Then I ruined just such a sweater in the wash.  I still don't know what happened.  It went in sunny yellow and came out with weird dark spots all over it.  Whatever.  I'd never been so pumped to ruin a perfectly good article of clothing.  Because now I could make an adorable knit cap.  

And make a cap, I did. I'm sorry for the gross cell phone picture of the "before," but as is often the case with my DIY, on a whim I grabbed the sweater and scissors and just started hacking the thing up without consideration for staging for a blog post.  My bad.

This was a really simple project and I'm not lying when I say it took maybe 15 minutes to make two.  Of course it probably should take 20-30 minutes if unlike me, you take your time and do things right (more on that in a sec).  All in all though, a simple project that was totally worth the time!  (And I was also using it as an excuse to practice sewing curves since currently I can barely sew a straight line)! To that point, two tips:

1. Trace a cap that's the size you'd like to make (or a little bigger) onto the sweater.  You can trace exactly or 1/4 to 1/2 inch larger for a seam allowance. Not only did I make mine a little on the big side but I also cut too quickly (see the weird shape on the upper left hand side of the first hat?).

2. Pin before sewing. I didn't for the first hat and of course the fabric shifted and I ended up with non matching seams.

And because I have such a cute little model to work with, a few more shots:

For the embellishment,  rather than make a bow like Make it and Love it did here (because that would have taken much longer than my 20 minute window), or a pom pom like in the very first picture, I decided to use a flower clip/pin I already had in my closet.  I always buy flower clips when they are on sale for $1 at Claire's or The Icing. For the 2nd hat, I used a pin that came on a sweater that was lying around in my hair accessories box.  By using pins, I can change out the embellishment to match the girls' coats.  I considered using a button and had a bunch of cute ones I'd saved from new clothing that includes extra buttons--I knew I was saving those for a reason--but in the end went the quickest and easiest route!

For the full tutorial on making a hat out of an old sweater, click here. She is a MUCH better seamstress than I am, so you'll definitely want to check it out!

So what do you think?  If you're tempted to "spill" some bleach on a cute sweater, you wouldn't be alone. ;)

Happy DIYing!