How to Make Pikmin Hats

Pockets and I both enjoy gaming.  Most of the time, the games we like differ greatly.  However, there's one that we both have a passion for: Pikmin.  We aren't hardcore gamers, just recreational gamers, and we both agree that the first Pikmin (originally released on the GameCube) is too hard and scary.  I barely remember playing Pikmin 2 (also on the GameCube).  But, when I got my Wii U for Christmas, I just had to try Pikmin 3.

Needless to say, I fell in love with the game.  The controls are so simple, the storyline is interesting, the characters fun, and the Pikmin adorable!  There isn't a single thing I dislike about the game.  And this rekindled my love for the Pikmin franchise--so much so that I bought 1 and 2 on the Wii to give them another try; I am immensely enjoying 2 at the moment.

On to the point.  This past Friday, the Play Nintendo Tour came to a local mall.  To celebrate this, and to be a total nerd, I thought it would be a good idea to make fleece Pikmin hats.  It took some thought, but in the end, they weren't too difficult to put together.  In fact, they were quite easy!

So here's a list of materials you'll need:
Roughly 1/3 yard of fleece in the color of your Pikmin
Green fleece
Batting or poly-fil
Hat pattern (I got mine here)

The green fleece is for the leaf at the end of their stem.  If you want to do a bud, you'll need white/pink/purple (depending on which Pikmin color you choose) and green.  If you want a flower, you'll need white/pink/purple and yellow.  Also, for the flower--and I'll mention this later--you may need an adhesive fabric.

The first thing to do is decide which color Pikmin you want.  Each has different traits that you can embellish on your hat:

Red has a pointy nose
Blue has a pink mouth
Yellow has big years
Rock has jagged edges
Pink has wings
Purple has feelers
White has red eyes (I didn't include eyes on any of the others, but since it's what distinguishes the Whites, I would include it on this one)

So far, I've completed 5 of the 7--with plans to finish the other 2 this week.

This will go step by step with how I created the hats.  I won't divide it by color, rather, I'll show the different ways to add the embellishments as we go along.

Step 1:  Pattern

I searched endlessly on Pinterest until I found a pattern that would work for my purposes.  I mentioned it in the list of materials, but I'll post it again.  It's called the Halloween Hat Pack from FleeceFun.com.  This site has a wonderful video tutorial which really helped when I was attaching the stem.  They also have a free pattern you can print off, in many different sizes.

I printed off the large adult, even though my head is tiny.  I figured I could always take the material in if necessary.

So, print out the pattern and pin it to the color of fleece you're using.  You'll want to have it folded, so you cut out two pieces at once--a front and a back.

 

With your two pieces together, right side to right side, sew up each side to the top V.

 
(You can see here I wanted to add a brim to the Blue Pikmin hat.  So I cut off the bottom inch and sewed it back on.)

Set this part aside for the moment.  We'll come back to it later. 

Step 2: Make the Stem

This part can get a bit tricky, depending on how much effort you want to put forth.  Making a stem with a leaf was incredibly easy.  However, for variety, I wanted to make a bud and a flower (because we all know that flower Pikmin are the best!).  

But first, we need to make a pattern for the stem.  I drew this freehand on a piece of paper, making sure I made it as long as I needed, in relation to the hat I had already cut out.  


 


I don't think it needed to be so wide at the bottom, but it didn't hinder the design either.

So, put the pattern on your fabric (again, we want to have two layers for a front and a back).  Pin it and cut it out.

Do the same thing for a leaf, keeping the size consistant with all the other parts.  Cut out a front and a back as well.

 



















































To make a front and a back, we want our fabrics to be mirror images of each other.  So take one stem and place the leaf on top.  Take the other stem, and make the leaf a mirror image to the first.  Put the leaves face down (so the stem and leaf are facing each other right side to right side), then sew a straight stitch across.

 

If you want, you can add some decorative stitches on the leaves to give them a bit more detail.  It didn't take long, and it turned out very cute, I think.

Now, with front and back complete, put them together, right side to right side, and sew all along the edges, leaving only the bottom open. 




Flip it inside out and stuff it with batting/poly-fil.


 

I added a bit of wire, to try to get it to stand up, but it didn't work very well.

 

For the bud, make a pattern that is a pointed oval.  You'll want to cut out four of these on the color of fleece you need.  (Yellow, Blue, and Red Pikmin have white buds; Purple and White Pikmin have pink buds; Rock and Pink Pikmin have purple buds.  You can find images easily using a search engine.) 



Sew the pieces together, right side to right side, and you'll get a bud!



From here, my sewing machine was useless.  The fabric was too thick to sew through.  A fancier machine might be able to do it, but mine couldn't.  I had to sew by hand.  So I took a few pieces of green fabric and sewed them around the bottom edges to be the leaves.

Then, complete the stem as above, EXCEPT you leave the top and bottom open.  Sew along both sides, then turn the stem inside out.  Hand stitch the bud to the top opening, and then stuff with batting. 

And now the most difficult: the flower. 

While at Joann buying more fleece, I was talking with the cutting counter worker.  She asked what I was making and I explained, and she gave me a great idea for making the flowers!  Using Pellon Peltex 2, a double sided, very stiff, adhesive fabric!



So I cut out white half-circles for the petals.



I put five of them in a circle with a yellow middle.



Then I cut out the Peltex and sandwiched it between another layer of all white.  I ironed them together (as the directions say) and then trimmed off the extra Pletex and bottom layer.  For sewing it onto the stem, I hand stitched five little stitches in the center of flower.

Using this method, It was actually easier than the bud.

Step 3: Attach the Stem

Taking the main hat fabric that we put aside, turn it sideways so the seam we sewed is in the center.

 

Flip the hat inside out, keeping the seam in the center.  Now, take the stem and turn it sideways, so the seams are in the center.   Pinch it flat, so the seams touch.


 

Now, place the stem inside the hat, and line up the seams.

 

Straight stitch across and trim off the extra fabric.

 

Step 4: Adding Embelishments

Rock: 

For the Rock Pikmin, I simply stitched on decorative lines, giving it a jagged look.



 






Blue:

 

I just added on a pink triangle on the brim of the hat.


(And of course, I took the picture before I put on the mouth.)


Red:



For the Red, I cut out a pointy nose (front and back) and sewed them together.  Stuff with batting.

 

Attaching it was pretty easy.  I made a horizontal slit in the very front of the hat, right around the brim.  With the hat inside out, I stuck the nose into the hat, with the opening on the outside, then sewed it shut (just as we did with the stem).






Yellow:



Yellow's ears are huge!  So, what I did was make a pattern for the ears, again, keeping in mind the size to the hat.  In fact, I think the ears are a bit too big.

So, with the pattern, you want to cut out 2 ears, each with a front and a back (4 pieces total).  I also added a bit of a darker yellow to the center to give the ears some contrast.  You'll only need 2 of those pieces, as they are only on the front.

Sew the darker pieces to the front of the ears--making sure that the ears will be mirror images of each other.  Remember, one goes on the right side, one goes on the left.  Then, put the front and back together, right side to right side, and sew along both sides, leaving the bottom open.

 

With the ears, you need to do it before we stitch the hat together.  Put the ears inside the hat, with a bit of the open end sticking out.  Then sew up both sides to the V.

 




Pink:



For the Pink, I had to add wings.  I hand drew a pattern for a circular type wing.  Like the ears, you'll need a front and back for each wing--4 pieces total.



Sew them together, leaving the straight edge open for stuffing.

Similar to attaching the Red's nose, I cut two vertical slices on the back of the hat for the wings.  With the hat inside out, stick the smaller side of the wing through the slit (with the wing inside the hat) and sew it together.  Cut off the extra fabric.






 And here's a few pictures from the actual event.  We had a lot of fun!

Here's mine and Pocket's mom in the Yellow hat:

 

And I wore the Pink because it was my favorite!

 


~Buttons

Painted Canvases with Dots and Hearts!

Pockets here!  I've been a bit AWOL lately due to my insane sudden reading obsession.  *chagrined face*  Life has been so busy for poor Buttons also, that we haven't really had a chance to get together and craft.  But lucky for you this evening the desire to put my art supplies to good use hit me.

I bought some canvas, paint, and circular sponges a while back intending to make some art for my guest bathroom.  I've seen all kinds of dot art on pinterest but wanted to put my own twist on it.  I LOVE hearts.  So I also bought some cardstock hearts.  The plan being to put the hearts on the canvas, paint dots around it, and remove the heart for a negative space piece.  Here's the supplies I used.


Acrylic paint - any color combinations/amount of colors that you want.
Brushes - I bought these Martha Stewart circular sponges because I have no idea how else to get perfectly round shapes, didn't want to make a bunch of circles by hand.
Canvases
Cardstock in any shape - There were a few options I debated, like tulips and stars
Paper plates and paper bag for paint pallet and floor protection.

I didn't adhere the hearts to the canvas in any way.  Obviously I couldn't tape it because it would block the paint.  I also wanted it flush against the canvas itself so that too much paint wouldn't leak under.  So I just was very careful and held the heart in place as I sponged.  Once you get one or two on the canvas and the heart it pretty much holds itself.

I learned on my second canvas (which I think turned out better) to start with the largest circle and work my way down in size.  I also only used four out of the six sponges.

That's pretty much it.  Remove the hearts once it's reasonably dry.  They came up pretty easy and Porp the BF made me feel better by saying he could totally tell it was a heart outline.  This project was not difficult at all and totally satisfied my crafting craving.  Dot placement was very creatively satisfying!!

Now I just have to hang them and hope they match my green bathroom walls!  Any other ideas for dot art?  We'd love to hear about them!!

~Pockets

Making the Amyrlin Stole

Today, I finished making an Amyrlin Stole, so I wanted to share with you how easy it is.  Honestly, the whole thing took me an hour and a half!

List of materials:
2 inch x 70 inch strips of fabric (in all the 7 colors of the Ajahs)
White backing fabric (about 12 inches x 70 inches)
Thread
Sewing maching
Pins

Pockets and I had a ton of left over material from when we made our Ajah color quilts (we'll post that soon).  These scraps were about 10 inches by 70 inches.



I cut off a 2 inch strip from each of the colors.





For our quilts, we picked patterns that represented the Ajahs, so the Amyrlin Stole will also have patterned fabrics, but I think it still turned out okay!



We used the color pattern from our canon sources (the New Spring graphic novel).  The order of the Ajah colors goes like this: Blue, Green, Red, Yellow, Gray, White, Brown.

Take your blue and green strips and sew them together with a straight stitch, right side to right side.  The color of thread doesn't matter because these will all be inside seams.



Next, sew the yellow to the green.



Sew the red to the yellow, the gray to the red, the white to the gray, and the brown to the white.



Next, iron down the seams.  It doesn't really matter which direction, only I noticed that the white fabric is a bit see-through, so I ironed the seams away from the white fabric.



Now, take your white backing fabric... Actually, it doesn't even have to be white.  Make it any color you want, or in your Ajah color, and it can double as the Keeper's Stole as well!  I have SO much of this nice, white silky material, so I used that.



Place your Stole face down on the fabric (you'll want them right side to right side).



Pin them together, then cut out the backing fabric.



 

Straight stitch along both the long sides and ONE of the short sides.





You can see the last edge is still open.  This is important!



Now we are going to turn it inside out.  Reach inside and grab the far end.  Pull through.



Tuck under the raw edge about an inch and pin.



Sew it closed.  Since I had white fabric on the bottom and multiple colors on top, I used a white bobbin, and a clear quilting thread on top.  Now, iron it flat.  Be careful if your backing material is silky.  You'll have to iron it with the cotton on top or else it could melt.



And here it is!







Honestly, it's a bit too wide.  The strips could have been thinner.  The whole thing is 9 inches by 69 inches.  It should probably be no wider than 7 inches.  But, for my first try, I'm super pleased with the results!

And here I am with my Keeper of the Chronicles!  I chose to make her Yellow.  :P



~Buttons