Book Review: Fleece Hat Friends

As soon as I saw the cover of Fleece Hat Friends by Mary Rasch I thought you all would like it. Am I right? How cute are those hats? So I emailed someone I know at Lark Books and she kindly sent me a copy to review.

It's taken me a while to get to it, but I'm glad I finally did. These hats are all seriously adorable!

As you all know, I've been in a monster state of mind lately, working on a monster pattern collection - so I chose the monster hat to try out. One of the things I love about the book is that all the patterns come in four sizes, to fit little kids up through big adults. I made this up in the smallest size (for a friend's lovely daughter)

and the largest size (for my husband).

The smallest size was a teeny bit too big for an 18-month-old, but that didn't bother her one bit. :-) And the largest size was just right for my husband (and also for me).

The book is laid out with the basic hat pattern and instructions first, plus general instructions for the earflaps and several kinds of eyes. Then each project is presented as its own chapter (with its pattern pieces right there instead of all piled into the back - nice!) showing what to add onto the basic hat for each individual critter. I really like this approach - by the end of the book I think you'd have a solid understanding of how to customize the basic pattern so that you could even try your hand at some of your own design ideas.

The basic hat pattern is super simple and stitches up in - I'm not kidding -  five minutes. The rest of the time is all on the details.

The teeth were a little fussy. She uses a new-to-me rolled-and-hand-stitched method. It wasn't hard, but while I did it I found myself wondering why not just sew two fleece or felt rectangles together and turn them right side out? That would have resulted in an easier, but flatter, tooth. The one in the book gave me a slightly more difficult (but still easy) tooth that definitely looked more solid and tooth-like.

The horns are machine sewn, then stuffed, then stitched on by hand. Nothing hard. I didn't get them exactly even on my husband's, but I think that adds to the charm. :-)

The eyes are fabulous - I love the technique she uses for fun googly eyes. It's all hand work, but it's super easy and a fun effect. I didn't have the right size beads to use as the pupils, so I just grabbed a couple of small buttons and they look great.

I left off the ear flaps on both hats but they look really simple to make, and I like how she adds paws and claws to the ends of some of them.

All in all I think this is a really terrific book. The number and variety of hats included is amazing - a lion, a ladybug, a monkey, a giraffe, an owl, a goldfish, and more - plus several extra accessories, like a scarf to match the giraffe hat and a backpack to match the monkey hat. You get 28 patterns for just $17.95! There's enough variety to make something for everyone, and they're easy enough to whip up for birthday gifts and more.

The verdict? Highly recommended.

Happy sewing!

Best,
Wendi