If you saw the image from the football game, then you saw the boys all bundled up and cold.  Kai said his ears were frozen by the end of the game.  He tried to put a stocking cap under his helmet, but it was too thick.  The helmets have to fit them pretty tight, so they don’t move around.  There isn’t a lot of room for a hat.  I tried to find a skullcap at the sports store, but they only had them for adults and even those were pretty thin.

Mama to the rescue!

I used one of his stocking caps for the template pattern.

If you want to make one, here is the template for the hat.  It was pretty easy to make.

• Cut four of the template.
• Put two of each right sides together.  Flat lock the seams and pull flat.  I did flat locking, since I didn’t want bulky seams that might irritate his head.  If you do a regular stretch seam on the sewing machine, I would also topstitch it down.
• Take the two pieces that were flat locked and put right sides together.  Flat lock these together.  Pull the seam flat.
• Trim the bottom hem.
• Overlay elastic on the hem, and stitch it down with a zig zag or stretch stitch.  This helps keep the fleece from pulling out of shape.  I didn’t pull the elastic at all when I stitched it down.   I used fold over elastic, as it is pretty flat (I didn’t fold it).
• All done!

Luckily, last weekend was rather nice out.  He briefly wore the hat, but then he was too warm.  We still have a game or two left this season, and it will fit him next year, too.  Plus…school/team colors!