How to Make a Sweet Little Bonnet

You will have to go out and buy the pattern yourself, sorry, unless you are skilled and amazing and can just guess and get everything right without one. The pattern is Simplicity #3840.

The bonnet you want is F. You may want the others, I don't know why, but they are there too.

The hardest part of this whole mess is choosing your fabrics, and what a great dilemma it is! The cute possibilities are endless. The more you sew, the bigger the variety of fabric you have to choose from in your piles of leftovers which is perfect for this pattern because you don't need much. Or just run to Fabricland and find some discount cotton fabric cheap.

Now cut out your pattern. I am making a small size because, again, this is a gift for a new baby this spring. So she will probably wear this size for the summer.

You will need to cut 2 of the main piece (left) and 1 of the top piece (right). You could use the patterned fabric as the main, but why? It's so much cuter this way!

Pin them. If you are like me, you have tried to cut corners and not pin something because it seemed "faster". It will only end bad. Not like I have ever done that though.

And don't forget to cut out one piece of interfacing with your main pattern piece. You want that stiffness in your bonnet otherwise it will flop on her face.

Iron your interfacing onto the wrong side of one of your main pieces. The shiny side of the interfacing goes toward the fabric to stick them together.

Important to note: When you go to iron these two together, flip it over so your fabric piece is what touches your iron, otherwise you will have a nasty mess on your iron. It's seriously not good, I nearly did it one time, followed by a few #$*@ 's. That actually happens more than you would think.

Use a fabric glue to stick your top piece to the main piece. I have this one, for no good reason other than it was the cheapest at Fabricland. It's annoying to apply, so I don't really recommend it, but I just used a lip brush from my makeup brush collection. No loss really, I am wasn't a lipstick wearer to begin with.

Put your top piece onto your main piece like so and admire how good they look together!

Choose a cute complimenting (or contrasting) color of thread. I like this one because there is juts a hint of this color in the patterned fabric I chose.

And using a tight zig-zag stitch, test it on a scrap of fabric. I do because I am a rookie, and have also screwed this up many times by not having all my settings correct on the machine before I started. Yes, $*@#'s were said, it's why I sew by myself.

I go slow, these bumpy parts are tricky.

Go around the whole thing.

Lookin' good. Backstitch at the end. But of course you knew that already.

Put the right side of your unused, second piece of main panel onto the right side of the other main panel. Basically, it's inside out. You will be turning it right-side out soon.

Make sure to leave several inches open once you have sewn around so you can turn it.

Give that wrinkly thing a good ironing and then stitch the opening shut by either slip-stitching it closed (which I can't do) or use your machine to stitch it shut. The latter is not as neat and discreet, but you have to do what you can.

Then pin the side up and put a dab of glue to hold your ribbon in place.

Grab some thread and a needle and sew on the buttons of your choice on each side.

Then take a picture on it with the cutest little model you can find!

Awwww...look at those sweet chubby cheeks peeking out from underneath.