Furry Animal Hood!
I wanted to make a furry hood with animal ears to wear at Burning Man. I found lots of pictures for inspiration, but no patterns or tutorials for what I wanted. There were lots of hat patterns, but they are all made up of 4 or 5 pieces to sew together, and I think fur looks much better if there are fewer seams. Or they are intended for polar fleece, which has stretch and fur doesn’t! So I decided to make my own pattern, where there is only one seam along the fur, and it doesn’t even go all the way down! And in the Burning Man spirit of gifting, I figured I'd share my pattern and the instructions, and post a little tute. Please let me know if anything is confusing.
Credit where credit is due - I was inspired by this instructable:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Sew-a-Where-the-Wild-Things-Are-hat-pattern/ and this etsy shop:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/BeastWares?section_id=8167601 and the video for the ears later on...
Materials:
1/2 yard lining fabric - cotton, fleece, etc
1/2 yard fun fur in main colour
scraps of contrasting fun fur for the ears & pompoms
3/4 yard cord or ribbon
1 sheet sticky back felt or thick felt and some glue
sewing machine, thread, needle for hand sewing, utility knife or razor, scissors, tapestry needle
Pattern files:
TOP BOTTOM1. Print out pattern files, There is a top and a bottom, you have to print each separately, then tape them together, aligning the thick line. You need to have your printer set to print landscape, and make sure it prints the original size - no ‘auto-rotate and centre’ or anything. There are 5cm lines on the pattern you can measure to make sure it came out right (don’t use the faded 2” one, it’s a little bit too short)
2. Cut out hood pattern on fold of cotton fabric, sew top seam with ¼” seam, leaving a gap for turning it right side out later.
3. Fold fur in half, fur side together, with the grain of the fur pointing down. Align hood pattern onto fold on wrong side of fur, trace it. Unfold fur, flip the pattern along fold line, trace other side of hood pattern. Cut out with utility knife. Don't use scissors on fur or its really messy! Sew top seam, tucking fur to inside.
4. Pin fur to lining, right side together. Start by matching up the centre front and centre back, then pin the flap part next, then the straight parts. Tuck the fur to the inside. I know no one likes pinning, but please don’t skip this step!
5. Cut cord in half, tie a knot in one end of each piece. Tuck each piece into the inside of the pinned together hat, at the bottom of each flap. Leave the knotted end outside, pin it along the seam.
6. Starting at the back, sew the lining to the fur. Carefully sew over each knot of cord as you reach it.
7. Using the gap in the seam on the centre inside, turn the hat right side out. Poke out the earflaps. Sew the inside seam.
8. Draft and sew ears using this video tutorial:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6aEqMlzzlohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWRYLe0SwVI(sticky back felt works faster than gluing on plain felt)
I hope that video works for everyone as well as it worked for me! It will make ‘fox’ ears, If you want cat ears just make them smaller, if you want bear ears, make them round on top. I’m not sure if the video mentions it, but the grain of the fur should be going up toward the top.
9. Choose one or two accent colours of contrasting fur to stick in the ears, and cut them into small squares (about 2" square). Sew them into a little tube, flip it right side out, and stick in between where you fold the edge of the ear over, raw edges all along the bottom. Baste the bottom of each ear together by hand.
10. Try on the hat, figure out the best placement for the ears. Pin one down (safety pins seemed to work best for me), then sew it on. Sew the second one on symmetrically. (You can also stick the hat on a foam head and pin the ears directly to the foam.)
11. For the poms poms - cut two 3" squares out of the man fur. Cut two rectangles that are slightly narrower but longer then the square out of one contrasting fur. Cut two more rectangles out of the other contrasting fur that are a little narrower and longer than the last ones. Sew each rectangle into a little tube, long sides together, with one open and one closed end. You should have six little tubes. Flip them fur side out.
12. Stick the narrowest tube on the end of a pencil. Stick the middle sized one over top, and the biggest over top of that. So now the smaller tubes are all jammed inside the bigger one, and you have a nice furry pom pom that you don;t have to stuff, with your accent colours just barely sticking out the bottom. Thread the end of the hat cord onto a tapestry needle, and stick it through the tubes, from the outside of the closed end, to the inside of the stacked tubes. It might be easier to kind of separate them to get the needle through, and then jam them back together. Tie a big knot on the end, and pull the fur pom pom down to the end.
Done! Wear your hat with pride! Hope to see you on the playa!
Thanks for looking!
