Mad as a Hatter - Exclusive designs from Itzo Kazbo

Up-cycled denim bucket hats are one of the first things that started to sell commercially, I have always loved the versatile shape and soon started experimenting with different patterns I started by taking one of my own hats apart to create a basic pattern template, this enabled me to further develop my original pattern to a range of different sizes.

Creating the hats from scratch allows for adaptions to the style like a wider brim or taller sides etc 

As a huge up-cycler it is important to me to use repurpose fabrics if I can and my hats are the perfect solution, made using old denim and other unwanted clothing fabric samples to create the appliqué designs.

Decorating the hats is such fun, I love it when a customer wants something completely different , each design is hand sketched at first and then broken down into the individual shapes needed for each colour/ section, once I have each piece as a cardboard template I can then start choosing the fabrics.

next step is to back each piece of fabric with iron on appliqué paper allowing me to draw around my cardboard template onto the paper backed fabric, each shape is then cut out of the fabric the backing removed and ironed onto the hat base building up the design similar to a collage.

Let the sewing commence .......

All of the appliqué is stitched into place using a sating stitch on my sewing machine and only once they are all in place do I actually sew the hat together, I make a duplicate hat from the lining fabric and then stitch them together wrong side out leaving a small gap so I can turn the hat back round the right way, a few finishing stitches on the finished hat to hold everything in place and then a good old hot steam iron .... where I burn myself on the steam at least twice!