How to Add Chin Straps to your Sunny Day Sun Hat! *updated 2020*

*Updated 2020! Exact and improved measurements for all Sunny Day Sun Hat sizes, and easier construction. The improved instructions are from our NEW Pepper Street Bucket Hat pattern for baby and kids, which has chin strap pattern pieces and instructions built right in so you can print, sew and go! Style-wise, Sunny Day has a 6-panel rounded crown, and Pepper Street is a classic bucket hat with flat top. Pepper Street also has expanded sizes – SIX sizes from 0 months (15″ head) to 10 years (21.5″ head) as well as adult bucket hat pattern version and a discounted bundle of all 10 bucket hat pattern sizes fitting virtually everyone.

Now on to the original but updated post, how to add chin straps to Sunny Day Sun Hat pattern.

OK, so you have a pile of adorable Sunny Day Sun Hats but your little angel just won’t keep them on? This tutorial shows you how to add chin straps to your Tie Dye Diva Sunny Day Sun Hat.

Materials you’ll need:
*16″ x 1.75″ fabric
*1 inch long piece of 1″ wide hook and loop tape (like Velcro®)

Here’s an overview of making the straps and then a step-by-step description.

Press your strip in half lengthwise with right sides together. Sew around the open edges using a 1/4″ seam allowance.

Cut/trim as needed this single piece into two unequal straps so that the closure won’t be directly under the chin:

•  0-6 months, 6″ and 4″
• 6-12 months, 6.25″ and 4.5″
• 1 to 3 years, 6.5″ and 5″
• 4 to 8 years 8″ and 6″

Turn the straps right-side out using a loop turner, small safety pin, or something long and thin like a chopstick. 

Press the straps well and topstitch.

Now, right after you’ve completed Step 3, pin the straps to the underside of the brim on your finished hat brim/crown assembly, with the raw edges of the straps aligned with the raw edges of the brim. Align them pretty much in the center of the “circle”, just slightly more toward the front. 

Check that the two sides are even by folding the hat brim in half.

Baste the straps into place. You want these straps out of the way for the next step, so Velcro them together on top of the hat, just like this:

Now continue to Step 4 and when you place the liner over your hat and brim, you’ll simply place it right over the straps too.

Cut two 1/2″ long pieces of 1″ wide hook-and-loop tape and sew one side to the outer side of the short strap and the other side to the inner side of your longer strap. It’s really handy to stick the hook-and-loop tape to your strap using Wash Away Wonder Tape, or even a swipe of a glue stick, so that you don’t have pins in the way when you’re trying to sew a tiny piece of Velcro to a tiny strap.

Continue with the pattern’s instructions until you’ve got something incredibly adorable, like this:

This method works for reversible hats also – the straps simply lay over the brim on one side and under on the other. I didn’t make this hat to be reversible, but if I did, it would be worn just like this:

[*Edited: also see the comments for Nicole’s great idea to add a buttonhole in the brim!]

Have fun!

How to Make A Sunny Day Sun Hat is available at www.tiedyedivapatterns.com

 

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