Make: Newborn Hat

by Designing Mom Jenn of 13 Creative



Form, Function and Fashion!
When I was in art school we learned that most commonly used products in this world fall into one of two categories; "Form" or "Function". Items were either supposedly really useful and incredibly unattractive OR beautifully designed and most likely useless. Our job, as designers, was to mesh these two concepts and create meaningful, useful design that was (to be blunt) "easy on the eyes"! It was around this time that Michael Graves had just launched his first line of designed products for Target, combining a really clean, minimal design aesthetic for bland, or "unimportant" items for the home - like plungers, toasters and other such commonplace items. This concept really took off and revolutionized the idea of "design for the masses".


I was in the hospital last week, having baby #2 (Hazel Anne Topliff was born on 1/21/10 and weighed 7lbs 3oz, in case anyone was wondering!) and I was once again face to face with the hospital-issue pink and blue striped hat that they put on your newborn the minute they're born (along with every other newborn on this planet). This hat is surely VERY functional and necessary, but how boring does it get?! I was convinced that there was a way to make this utilitarian fashion item just a bit jazzier, and so I got to work.

Before my spinal medication wore off, I made sure to get my hands on my nurse's scissors and did my best to combine Form and Function... AND Fashion! A girl's got priorities, I mean come on...! The result was a little bit "Aretha Franklin meets Carmen Miranda" but it was ALL cute! Hazel is modeling my handiwork below, and as you might imagine, all the other kids in the hospital nursery were crying out of jealousy when they saw it!


Here's how to turn your baby girl's hospital headwear into something a little bit more fashion forward:

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

- Two blue and pink striped hospital-issue newborn hats
- Pair of scissors

DIRECTIONS

1. Take one of the two hats and fold up the bottom of the hat about 1"-2" high (depending on size of your baby's head)
2. Using scissors, cut the folded band off the hat. Set aside.
3. Take the second hat, and fold up bottom of the hat just a little larger than the band you just cut off the first hat. In the front of the hat (using the scissors) cut two vertical slits about 1/2" apart in the folded band area, making sure to leave some room at the top and bottom of the band. Make sure to cut through the entire band (both the front folded part as well as the back part)
4. Take the separate band that you cut off, and had set aside, and feed it through the two slits you just made in the hat that's still in tact.
5. And "Voila"... with a little primping and fluffing you'll have a lovely "bow" going through the slits in the hat and your daughter will go from 'mainstream' to 'marvelous'!