A Windproof Toque

I went to visit my parents this weekend; the break from the DEEP FREEZE made it an opportune time to be on the highway, not hiding at home.

I took along the fabric for N4's puppy since my mother's kitchen table is so nice to use to cut things out. My cutting table is great, but I can only access it from one side, whereas I can go all the way around the kitchen table at the farm.

I cut out the dog, and I will blog about it when I have sewed it up.

I still had a about 40 cm of polar fleece fabric left and thought I should make my dad a warm toque. My parents farm and my dad spends quite a bit of time outside. It doesn't matter how cold it is, you still have to feed the cattle.

I used a basic toque pattern from OOP McCalls 9551. I cut two layers of the polar fleece and then a third layer from a felted wool sweater I had taken along. Originally I had planned to use just the sweater, but thought it might be a little scratchy, so the idea came to line it in the fleece. Then I thought the wool would be a little hard to clean if it was covered in hay and dust, so I figured I'd put some polar fleece on the outside as well. A felted wool sandwich, if you prefer.

I managed to cut the hat pieces out of the sleeves leaving the body for another future project. The sleeves on these sweaters are always hard to use up, so I'm glad I could use them first.


The rest of the left over piece polar fleece was used for neck tubes.

This pictures shows the three pieces sandwiched together, and interestingly enough, the real colour of the fleece. It is gray, not blue.


The three layers were very hard to sew through and became an utter gong show when when I tried to attach the band. I couldn't lower the presser foot, but there was enough pressure to keep things together anyway.

The final product is not pretty and looks like a helmet -and actually feels kind of like one too - but at least my dad should be warmer in the thing.

 

Since I'm trying to use up stash, this counts at 0.4 m used.