Friday, December 2, 2011

2nd Eddie Cap

I tried to list the changes and adjustments that I made to the tutorial for the Eddie Cap and realized that there were a lot more than I thought so I decided to do another Eddie Cap, this one with the tweaks that I made from the last one detailed so that someone could follow along. Also, I used directional fabric and quilting cotton, so I'll be adding my changes for that also.




I made this cap for a 22 inch head.

The items you'll need:
A little less than ½ yard fabric. In the first Eddie Cap that I made, I used a very flowy, medium weight polyester. In this version I used quilting cotton.
Lightweight Interfacing for both bill pieces and for the top piece.
Regular weight Wonder Under for the front band piece
Peltex or other stiff fabric for bill stabilizer (not necessary if you are using thicker fabric)
Scissors and rotary cutter
Ruler
Chalk or something temporary to mark the fabric (I didn't use this at all, but it helps to mark points)
Pins
Sewing machine
Iron

As the original tutorial here used 1/2 seam allowances, I did also.

The pieces.
Top piece: 13 inch square piece of fabric and 13 inch square piece of interfacing
Bill Pieces: 2 pieces 5 inches x 8 1/2 inches of fabric and interfacing and 1 piece of 5 inch x 8 1/2 inch of Peltex
Outside Band piece: 2 1/2 inches x 24 inches of fabric and Wonder Under
Inside Band piece: 2 inches x 24 inches of fabric

Measure 3½” in both horizontally and vertically from each corner cut diagonally to form irregular octagon with 5 inch corners and 6 inch sides. This may be clearer in the orignal tutorial.

The bill.
Stack you rectangles making sure everything is lined up. Fold rectangles in half long-wise and cut the shape of bill that you desire. Notice the direction of the fabric on the bill. You want the top of the design to be toward the top of the bill.

Apply the interfacing to the bill pieces and the top of cap.

Apply wonder under to the wrong side of Outside Band piece.

Cut Peltex to shape of the bill.

Stack the bill pieces right sides together with Peltex on outside.

Sew the 1/2 inch seam around.

Then trim the curve very close to the seam. I try to trim to 1/8 inch or less. You can also clip the curves, but this makes life a lot easier, imo.

Flip right sides out and press.

Then make lines of top stitching. On the previous cap, I made 6 rows of topstitching spaced 1/8 inch apart. This cap has 4 rows spaced 1/4 inch apart.

Cut a curve across bottom open edge to somewhat match the top curve of the bill and set aside. The original tutorial suggests that the bill should only measure about 3″ wide and 4″ wide at the ends. I actually cut both of mine to be 2 1/2 inches in the middle and nothing off the ends.


Sew each band piece right sides together at sides to make 2 circles. Press seams open. Finish along top edge of the 2″ x 23″ inside band.

Tear off paper of Wonder Under.

Baste the bill to interfaced band, right sides together, noting the direction of the outside band. The pattern should be in the same direction as the bill. I start in the middle and sew outward and sewed this with 1/8 inch seam.

And because I'm directionally challenged, I now checked the outside to make sure that I sewed it correctly.

Then starting again at the center I sewed the other half of the bill to the outside band piece again using 1/8 inch seams.

Then to sew the outside and inside band pieces right sides together (the finished end of the inside band piece will be away from the bill), I again started in the front middle and sewed towards the back, this time using 1/4 inch seams.

The I sewed the other side and checked around to make sure that the seam matched well. Notice how beautiful the logo is matched with the center (this is important because in the next step I screw it up).

Again trim close to seam. Pay attention or you will have to redo the band as I did, which results in a less than perfect finish later.

Fold outside band in half to form hem at the top of the band and press making sure that the seam between bands is pressed well. Do this in very small pieces at a time and very slowly as the Wonder Under is not going to allow you to reposition this.


It is now readily apparent that I messed up the band. :(

Since I have an octagon 44 inches in perimeter and I need it to be the 23 inches of the hat. I need to take out 21 inches, which is 2 5/8 for each of the eight sides. For this, on each of the long sides of the octagon, I folded out a scant 1 3/8 inch out of each side. Once it’s folded and pined, the edge should form a curved edge. Also, the inside folds should look like a “V” and the outside should have two straight pleats. This is also demonstrated in the original tutorial.





Starting at the center front, sew top of cap to the inside finished edge of the band, but be sure that the middle of the top is lined up with the middle of the bill (both for the piece and also the direction of the pattern of the fabric). Stop before you get to the back pair of pleats.

Again I check the direction of the pattern and fabric.

Then starting at the middle, sew the other side again stopping before the last pleat.

Adjust pleats so that top fits band perfectly.

Finish sewing top to inside band.

Topstitch 1/8 inch from bottom of bands. Topstitch again 1/8 inch from top edge of outside band, straightening top piece to lay flat as you sew.

You should have a finished cap now.

1 comment:

  1. That is a fabulous cap! Thank you for taking the time to make this excellent tutorial

    ReplyDelete