Since I'm trying to make a few of these I thought I'd stop and take some pictures along the way. Hope this help someone take the plunge and start sewing. Though when all is said and done I wish the major manifactures would churn out a few billion of the suckers:) . Sewing this little stuff does give you an appreciation for those in HK/China working for the manifactures.

First you need a pattern. This is the one I use.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177ballcap.jpg
Print the pattern out full size and cut out your fabric. A little trick I use is to use a glue stick to lightly glue the pattern to the fabric. This will keep the pattern in place while you cut the pieces out.

You'll also need to cut out a slightly smaller version of the bill in thin cardstock. Now sew two of the crown pieces together along one side. Use nice small stitches and tie off the ends well. Repeat this with the four other crown pieces. The bill pieces need sewing allong the outside edge. The better you do your sticthing now the better the hat will look when it's finished. So take your time and take a break once and a while. I always find my stiches get bigger and bigger the longer I sew.

This is what you should now have.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177raw_pieces.jpg

Now for some fun, turning the bill rightside out. I use hairspry to stiffen my fabric to make it easier to cut and sew. To relax the fabric enough to turn the bill inside out I wet the bill with warm water until it nice and soft. Then use tweasers to tease the bill inside out. It takes a bit of poking and proding to get it into rough shape. Then insert the cardstock bill inside the fabic sleave to stiffen and further shape the bill. Put this away to dry nice and flat. Each of the pairs of crown pieces can be gently bent into shape dry. Just slowly bend them back on themselves until they lie flat.

Here's where we should be at now.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177first_bit_of_sewing.jpg
While the bill is drying. take two of the crown pairs and sew them together along one edge, much like you did before. The tricky bit is sewing the very top part of the hat where you run out of space to hold on to the darn thing. This is the trick I use. https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177close_up_sewing.jpg
By holding the hat with my pointed tweasers I can still drive the needle with my other hand.

Add the other pair of crown pieces and continue stitching until the crown of the hat is complete, but inside out. Pay particular attention to making good firm stitches at the top part of the hat because that part of the hat is under a lot of strain when you turn the hat inside out.

Next wet the crown of the hat with warm water and gently tease it inside out. While you do this shape the crown of the hat and turn up the bottom edge into a neat, even and straight edge. Grab the figure your going to use and put the wet, shaped crown on it.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177shaping_the_crown.jpg
Keep messing about until your happy with the look. Once the crown dries it will be pretty stiff and keep it's shape so now's the time to get it right. While the crown dries its a good idea to trim off any excess from the cardstock bill reinforcment. The cardstock should follow the edge of the fabric of the bill and is often just a little bit too big.

I'll leave this for a moment as I've got to finish taking pictures, I've been doing this while the crown dries, Be back soon with attaching the bill and finishing up. Once you get this far you're almost done.:banana

If I haven't been clear please let me know as I'd like to get better at explaining things.

Hope this helps.
Dan

Dan, first off, great tutorial... VERY clear and VERY informative. Secondly, AWESOME work. Your hat ( steps shown thus far ) looks really damn good. I think you're giving all the major manufacturers a run for their money. Thanks for sharing the tutorial and can't wait to see the final results.

-Mike:thumb :thumb :thumb :thumb

That looks great! I think my fingers are too fat to do that.

Thanks guys,
As to fat fingers. Well, mine aint that thin I can tell you, add some minor hassles with tremmors and let's just say life can be interesting.

We're on the home stretch so off we go.

Now that the crown is dry, (I tend to speed the drying up by putting the figure in front of a electric floor heater. Not too close, you don't want to add to my collection of increadable melting men:) .) The crown should be stiff enough to hem quite easilly.

Now you have a desision to make, where to put the front seam. I've been told that baseball caps have the seam alined with the middle of the fore head like this.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177Ccap_seam.jpg
But the three caps I have (admitedly all Bills caps :sadshake Boy I love losing SuperBowls) Have the front panel like this.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177hemming_the_cap.jpg
The choice is yours and I don't think it will make any difference. Once you choose, tack the bill to the crown with two or three really tiny stitches in the middle. Make sure you go through the reinforcing cardboard in the bill and that the crown goes over and covers the edge of the bill. That is the bill sets under the crown.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177bill_tacked_on.jpg
Now you can start to stitch the bill on. Attach one end of the bill to the crown. This is one reason I like centering the panel on the forehead as the end of the bill lines up neatly with a seam on the crown. I use three good stitches to attach the bill.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177bill_end_stitched_on.jpg
Slowly stitch the bill on . Make sure you go through that reinforcing cardboard. I've also tried to line up the stitches with the stitches in the hem of the crown because it looks a bit neater. Go all the way round and finish off with two or three good stitches. Hopefully that end of the bill will line up at the other seam.:thumb
Take your time and make all the stitches count as any lose or missalined stitches really show. Effectively your done.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177bill_stitching.jpg
Wasn't too hard now was it? I add a little button made with the head of a panel pin covered in cloth to the very top to finish off, it covers some stitching and looks a bit better. But I don't think it neccessary.
https://www.onesixthwarriors.com/photo/data/513/1177finished_cap.jpg
When I make more I'll make sure the thread is a closer match to the cloth colour. (I used light yellow here so it would show up in the photos, light green would have looked better.) I'd also use even smaller stitches when I do the stitching on the bill to get a smoother curve there. A bit of weathering with chalk and oil paints and it should come up a treat. Time to make was about two and a half hours but some of that time was waiting for bits to dry. Cost was nothing really other than the time. If your thinking about making one , do. It's a fun little project that not really that hard. Now if I can just get some dark blue or tan fabric....

Hope that helps.
Dan

It looks great! The color thread you used makes it stand out more.