Recycle old Jeans into a Bucket Hat and decorate it with Crochet Appliques

I have always wanted to combine my crocheting with sewing projects. Today I’m happy to present you my first project of this kind: The Denim Bucket Hat made from husband’s old Jeans, embellished with a crochet poppy bouquet.

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I don’t have much experience with sewing, I'm still learning, but I think the hat turned out pretty good for a beginner.  

And the crochet appliques give such a nice touch!

Now let me tell you how I made my hat, what materials and what sewing & crochet patterns (most of them FREE) I have used!

Materials and Tools used: 

• For the bucket hat:

- husband’s old Jeans (with his permission, lol)
- husband’s old shirt for lining
- interfacing for brim
- coordinating thread
- pins
- sewing Thread
- sewing machine
- scissors

• For the crochet appliques:

- embroidery floss (5 total: 2 red, 2 green and 1 dark grey )
- 2 mm crochet hook
- matching thread and sewing needle to sew the appliques onto hat

How I recycled the old jeans into a bucket hat: 
First of all, I have cut the pant leg and removed the side seams. Then cut out the pieces for the hat: hat crown, 2 side panels and 2 brim pieces.
You can find a great picture tutorial how to recycle old jeans with no waste on instructable.com.

PATTERNS USED:

a) Sewing Pattern(s) used for the hat

I must admit that I have not used one pattern, but a combination of 2 free sewing patterns and my own little adjustments. 

The style of the hat with seams on the sides and the steps used to sew the hat are from The Reversible Bucket Hat from Oliver + s. (Their sewing pattern comes only in sizes from toddler to 8 year old child).

As I told you, I’m not an experienced seamstress and I don’t know how to make other sizes from an existing pattern, that’s why to obtain a women size, I have guided myself by Schnabelina’s Sun Hat (Free ebook download in German, containing the sewing pattern for all sizes and a step by step tutorial.) I have printed out Schanbelina’s pattern for the size needed, but instead of cutting the jeans on the fold as in pattern, I let seam allowance on the left side and cut 2 denim pieces for the side panels and 2 denim pieces for the brim, then worked following the pattern from Oliver+s.  

(If you don't sew, you can still sew crochet appliques on your existing hats. )

b) Crochet Patterns used for the appliques:

1. For the Poppy Flowers I have used this free crochet flower pattern designed by Celina from Simply Collectible Crochet, a very easy and pretty flower that in the original pattern measures 4″-5″ worked with acrylic worsted weight yarn or 3″ worked with cotton or using Caron Simply Soft.

 
Using embroidery floss and a 2 mm crochet hook, my flowers turned out measuring 4 cm (approx. 1.6″).
To make them look like poppy flowers, I have worked the first round with green, the 2nd round with grey  and 3rd round with red.
I really love how they look! Thank you Celina for the beautiful flower pattern!

2. The Leaves were made from the book Crochet Bouquet: Easy Designs for Dozens of Flowers by Suzann Thompson.

The leaf pattern is called “Spiky Leaf” and you can find it on page 122 in the book.

3. I have also crocheted a green cord as Flower Stem starting with a foundation chain to the desired length, then turned and starting with the 2nd chain from hook I have slip stitched across all the chains.

How and when to attach the crochet appliques:
Before adding the cap lining (the last step “Finish the hat” from Oliver’s pattern) I have pinned the crochet appliques to the hat in the desired place, then hand stitched around the edges of crochet flowers and leaves using coordinating color thread.

After sewing the cap lining over the denim cap, the threads will be hidden under the lining. 

To give the hat a nice, finished look, I have edgestitched the seam where the side panel and the brim meet (right below the flower appliques).

And that’s it! I hope you like my bucket hat! I sure do! I plan to make more crochet & fabric projects for the future. A matching denim bag with crochet appliques would be nice! :)

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