Recycled Sweater Pussyhat Tutorial

You've heard of the Pussyhat Project, yes? It's a movement to provide a "unique visual statement" to the women marching on Washington D.C. on January 21 and give people who aren't able to go to D.C. an active way to get involved. Cool, right? I first heard about it late last week and then all of a sudden my Facebook feed was full of pussyhats. I have friends knitting hats for friends and for marchers and for anyone who donates to Planned Parenthood, and all kinds of awesomeness. I'm not quite that awesome (or energetic), but I thought I could at least knit a hat to wear to the march in Augusta.


But when I dug through my stash I found only a very small amount of pink yarn. I could have gone in search of pink at the craft store, but I didn't really want to knit another hat, when I'm in the midst of a months-long hat-knitting project, and I really really didn't want to knit a pink hat (pink's not my color) [I'm sounding more selfish by the minute, aren't I?] and I'm a really really really slow knitter. BUT!! I can sew and I thought I could come up with a sewn version (I didn't realize at the time that the Pussyhat Project already listed patterns for sewing hats) and I had in my stash a shrunken pink sweater. I could recycle the sweater into a pink pussy hat, which would be a double-whammy (Environment! Women's Rights!!). Awesome! Here's how you can make your own:

You can see that the sleeve on this puppy has already been scavenged for another project.

Materials needed: 
One shrunken pink sweater
Thread
Sewing machine or hand-sewing needle
Ruler

I don't even own pink thread! I had to use this rainbow stuff. Now it's a triple whammy!

How to:
1) Measure the circumference of your head. Divid by 2. Add 1/2. This is your width (W); length (L) is 11".

2) Draw a rectangle on your sweater, W across by L high, starting from the bottom edge (you want to keep the ribbing intact). Cut through both layers along that line.

3) Keeping both layers WRONG side together, sew up 2 1/2 inches from the bottom on both sides, using a 1/4 or 3/8 inch seam allowance, back-tacking at both ends.

4) Turn inside out, so that the RIGHT sides are together and, starting from where your previous seam ended, sew all the rest of the way up both sides and across the top, again back-tacking at both ends.

5) Clip the top corners, turn right-side-out.

6) Fold up the bottom cuff (the 2 1/2 inches you sewed first).

That's it!

Put on your hat and make a crazy face at your camera. Go Pussy Power!

All told, I think it took me about half an hour, maybe 45 minutes, including the head-scratching time of figuring out how to do it.

I happened to have also found a small amount of pink fleece in my stash as well, so I sewed up another hat, from this pattern. It took maybe five minutes, tops, which I'll share with a friend who joins me at the march.