Men’s Flat Cap / Gatsby Hat: Pattern DIY Tutorial

Are you tired of searching Excellently Fitting FLAT CAP (sometimes called Gatsby hat, or even Newsboy hat) for The Man in Your Life?
He wants STYLE, COMFORT, WARMTH, and having ONE OF A KIND HAT? You can sew a straight line, and wish to give Your Man The HAT that nobody else will have? GREAT!
Make use of this tutorial and create for him FLAT CAP.
If he wants – you can even add warm and practical, folding inside EARFLAPS to keep his ears warm when it’s cold. See this TUTORIAL FOR MAKING EARFLAPS FOR FLAT CAP / GATSBY HAT.

You can use this pattern to make hat for any season – just by choosing different fabric and lining fabric. For colder season it is a good idea to use some fabric that gives warmth (like – wool) and make the hat even warmer by choosing warm lining fabric as well. To give the outer fabric additional strength for shape, and more warmth- you can add fusible interfacing. For hot season – use light fabrics, and you can skip the lining. To make this hat pleasant for wearing in the heat – make some holes in the sides for air circulation. You can choose different size of brim – whatever feels right.

I made this hat for the cold season. The brim is quite wide to protect the eyes when it is snowing or raining. The outside fabric is made of wool and is rather thick. I also added fusible interfacing. The inner lining is warm fabric (half wool).

If you follow the steps of this tutorial, it should be easy and simple to make this hat.

MATERIALS NEEDED TO MAKE THIS FLAT CAP / GATSBY HAT:

A. Fabric for hat, that is 60 cm x 60 cm big for pattern details 1 and 2 (pattern shows half of the details 1 and 2 – see for the folding line indications), and twice detail 3 (see picture 1 top right corner, and picture 6). Cut the fabric with seam allowance 7 mm outside pattern’s line.
B. Lining fabric 60 cm x 45 cm (if you decide to make hat with lining) for pattern details 1 and 2 (picture 1 middle fabric, and picture 7). Cut the fabric with seam allowance 5 mm outside pattern’s line.
C. Fusible Interfacing 60 cm x 45 cm for outside fabric for pattern details 1 and 2 (picture1 on the very left, and picture 8). Cut the interfacing right on the pattern line.
You can also skip this step. If you choose to add it – it will give additional strength for the fabric to hold the shape.
D. Some strong material to use inside brim that would hold the shape (carton, brim from baseball cap that you don’t need, durable plastic etc).
I used an old plastic folder (picture 2), but it was not as thick as I wanted, so I cut out 5 pieces of detail 3 (picture 3) and glued them together (picture 4).
E. Ribbon for inside of the hat around the head – about 59 cm long and 2 cm wide)
F. Thread, Iron, Needles, Pins, Sewing Machine (this hat can also be made just by hand).

STEPS OF HOW TO MAKE FLAT CAP / GATSBY HAT:

Detailed description of steps for making the hat is below the pictures:

STEP 1: Use the pattern for hat details 1, 2 and 3 that is in PDF file (Pattern as PDF). There are two A4 pages. One of them contains details 1 and 3, and part of detail 2, while the second page contains continuation of detail 2. Join both parts of detail 2 together at the indicated line.

This pattern is meant for the head’s size 58 cm. If you need it to be smaller – sew it tighter than pattern shows (middle seam of detail 2 and both seams at the back of the hat where detail 2 is joined to detail 1).

STEP 2: Cut out the parts of the hat as described above at Materials Needed.

STEP 3: If you decided to use fusible interfacing – iron it on the outside fabric’s BACK side within pattern lines (picture 1).

STEP 4: Put detail 1 and 2 front sides together, so that back side of the fabrics would be outside (picture 2).
Join the details first at the middle lines – folding lines. Then pin them together along the hems, so that corners marked with letter “A” (on the pattern) would be connected as indicated (picture 3-5). Then sew along this line all around the hat – from one corner A to the second corner A.

STEP 5: Turn the hat to the right side and pin the seam that you just made to the center of the hat (picture 6). Then sew along the seam of step 4, so that your new sewing line would be on the seam’s side towards the center of the hat, about 2 mm away from previous seam.

STEP 6: Now turn the hat inside out and pin together the middle back seam of detail 2 (picture 7), then sew it. Then turn the hat to the facing side and sew along one side of this seam – about 2 mm away from the seam.

STEP 7: Pin both details 3 for brim together with facing sides inside and sew the outside seam on the brim. Then turn them so that facing sides would be outside and insert the stiff material for the brim inside the fabric brim.
Then pin both details 3 together on the line where it will be attached to the hat and sew along this curved line. Now the stiff brim material is completely inside seams and is not visible anymore.

STEP 8: Pin the brim to the hat – attaching detail 2 to brim, first by matching middle lines of brim and detail 2. Then sew along the inner curved line of the brim (picture 8).

STEP 9: See picture 9 – you need to pin the outside curve of brim to the hat and sew it to DETAIL 1, so that brim would be attached to it (picture 9). If you can – sew with machine, otherwise do it by hand.The brim I created was so thick that machine could not pierce the needle through it, so I had to sew the brim by hand to detail.
However, you can also decide that you want the brim to be free and not attached to detail 2, then you can skip this step.

STEP 10: Now repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 for making the lining of the hat (same as on pictures 2 to 7).

STEP 11: Put the lining inside the hat – outside fabric and lining fabric have back sides of fabric together. Pin the lining to the outside fabric so that seams would match. Try the hat on (if possible) and make necessary adjustments.
Now fold the outside fabric’s edge inside the hat along the outside line, so that it would cover the edge of the lining fabric (picture 10). Sew by hand (or machine if possible).

STEP 12: Pin the ribbon inside the hat, all around the edge, about 3 mm away from the edge (picture 11), then sew it on the line close to the edge of the hat. Make sure it is not visible from the outside.

CONGRATULATIONS – YOUR HAT IS READY!

If you want to add EARFLAPS that can be tucked inside hat when not needed – check out this DIY TUTORIAL FOR MAKING EARFLAPS FOR FLAT CAP / GATSBY HAT.

Let me know if you have any questions or comments about this tutorial!