Autumn Oak Leaves Pixie Hat - Made from Grandma's Sweaters

A couple of months ago, I spotted some cute pixie hats on Pinterest. I pinned this autumn oak leaves hat, which links to an Etsy sewing pattern that costs $6. The pattern is for two sizes: 9-18 months and 18-36 months.

The pattern doesn't really explain how much fabric you need. I went to Jo-Ann and ordered blindly! I got 1.5 yards of cotton fabric for the lining of the hat, and I ended up using about half of that for three hats. I ordered the smallest amount I could (1/8 yard) of felt for each of the three colors of felt I used. The fabric came to $8, and I had a lot left over. The most expensive item was the embroidery thread I bought for $8. I only got one color instead of two because it was expensive! I used that to stitch on the leaves and acorn. Finally, she lists "wool" as an item needed for the braids on the hat. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to get, so I just ended up using some straw-colored yarn I had. The main part of the hat was made from upcycled sweaters, so I ended up spending $16 on materials for 3 hats and $6 on the pattern.

A small hat for Hazel:
                                                                                             

A small hat for Paisley:

My mother-in-law, Colleen, gave me a few wool sweaters of hers, one that was her mom's when Colleen was a baby, and one that was her mother-in-law's. We worked hard to try to get the sweaters to felt. We put them in her laundry sink and added boiling water. We mashed them with a wooden spoon, and then we ran them through her dryer a couple times. They didn't felt! I tried at my parents' house because they have an older washer and dryer. She'd heard those work better for felting. It seemed to do the trick for some of the sweaters! Three of them felted, but two did not. I was able to get one hat from each of the three felted sweaters. Two of them shrunk so small that I could just barely get a small hat from each. One stayed large enough to get the larger size hat made for Jo. Oliver and Joanna have a new baby cousin, Paisley, so we decided she should get the small hat made from Great Grandma Jackie's sweater. I sent the other to my cousin for her little girl.

Here's Joanna in her autumn oak leaves pixie hat:

I think the hats are so stinking cute! I am not much of a seamstress at all, so I think anyone who has worked with a sewing pattern before would be able to make this hat. I hat a tough time with the first one, figuring out how to flip it and where to stitch in the braided pulls. After that, the others were easy!