Toddler hat strap tutorial

OK. This is not rocket science, and hardly deserves a tutorial.

Nevertheless, when I take my two year old to the park in this hat, I invariably get a few mothers asking me where I got it, because they have a hell of a time persuading their kids to keep their hats on. The strap is the main attraction.

WE recently were given about five cotton hats that I didn’t get any use out of for a couple of months – Little One would shrug them off within seconds. Yet it took ages to get around to making the time to buy some cord pullers, and sew some simple straps. It’s amazing how much the inertia can kick in on a project like this.

I thought, it can’t be that hard. And it isn’t.

So…to buy the cord pullers. I could only source the variety with one hole at my local stores. They’re ok, but a two-hole puller, like the one below, is much easier – you only need to make one strap instead of two, and you don’t need to knot them up at the free ends. You can buy them online if all else fails.

Do test them before you buy – some are harder to use than others.

And now to the strap (this is for a one-hole puller):

Cut two strips of your chosen fabric 2.5cm (1 inch) wide. And say, 50cm (19″ long). The width is important (so it can fit nicely through the puller), the length you can play around with to suit.

Fold in half lengthwise, wrong sides together, and press.

Open out the strap, fold in one long edge so that it meets the centre crease (again, wrong sides together). Press.

Do the same with the other long edge.

Now fold along the centre crease again, but this time tucking in those raw long ends. Press.

One at a time, open out each short end, and fold in about 1cm towards the wrong side. Press. Now bring the long sides to the centre again, tucking in the raw edges.

Topstitch all round. You may need to change your needle to a 16/10 if the thread is going a bit berserk.

Attach to the inside sides of your hat.*

Feed the straps through the cord puller, one at a time, using a safety pin if need be.

*For a two-hole puller, cut one strip of fabric, around 90-95cm long.

Follow the instructions above, but attach only one end to the inside of the hat. Thread the strap through both holes in the puller, and then attach the other end.

Voila – Instant hat usability.

And yes, this is the same technique to make bias binding, only for straps the fabric is cut on the straight grain!