Project 42: Seahawks Jester Hat and Gauntlets

One of my co-workers at my day job, Justin, is big fan of the Seattle Seahawks. They won the Superbowl last year, and may possibly play in it again this year. Even for a non-sports person like me, it's a little exciting.

Several months ago, Justin asked me if I could make him a jester's hat in the Seahawks' team colours with a logo on the front. I was a resistant to the idea initially. Millinery is it's own field of endeavor for a very good reason. He said he had one he liked that I could use as a pattern, so I agreed to look at it.

I added the widow's peak in front. It looks very fierce.

Hemming the thumb opening forced
me to resort to fabric glue. Boo.

It turned out to be very simply constructed. It consisted of a head band with ear flaps seamed at the back which was attached to a simple three lobed top which was just a front and back side stitched together. I accepted the challenge.

Justin was unable to find a source for just the logo patch, so he bought a baseball cap that had one he liked on it and I had to figure out how to deconstruct the hat to get the logo without destroying it. Once I took a pair of scissors to it, I found I could remove all the surrounding baseball hat material and peel the patch off pretty easily.

I measured the model hat and used my Dritz Styling Design Ruler to create a pattern with symmetrical, attractive curves.

My usual haunt, Pacific Fabrics, had an entire display up front in their store of all their produce in Seahawks colours, which are lime green and navy blue. I picked up some blue fleece and green velveteen and off I went.

Super fan!

Construction was dead easy; nothing too it other than tolerating the ungodly amount of fluff that the velveteen exuded from its cut edges. I was never so glad that I bought a Babylock Imagine serger! By the end of the project I was in a rush to get all the cut edges of the velveteen serged closed while I could still see my carpet! I kid, I kid.

In addition to the logo patch that I harvested from the baseball cap, Justin purchased two commemorative patches from the Seahawks' Superbowl victory that he wanted attached to the earflaps on the hat, but I just couldn't do it. They were too big for the available space and I was afraid they would ruin the look. I felt bad just saying 'no' to something he wanted, so put my thinking cap on and came up with the idea of gauntlets. I could make elbow length gauntlets and attach a championship patch to each one.

And he's single, ladies!

I had enough fabric left over, so I quickly made a pattern from my own forearm, then added some room for his considerably more beefy ones! I thought I would show them to him before attaching the patches to make sure he liked the idea. He loved the gauntlets, but wants to wait on patches until the next Superbowl, just incase he could have one patch from each victory on each arm.

I told him that if any of his friends wanted copies of the hat, that I would make them for $25 plus materials. Bespoke team wear isn't cheap, and Taigh Sheumais Fashions has to put bread on the table too.