Add a fun touch to your wardrobe with this lovely woolen beret.

Tools and Materials
Tailor's tape measure
Beret template
Scissors
Small heavy item, such as a can of soup or a paperweight
Rotary Cutter
Pins
Sewing machine
Uncovered 1-inch button
Button covering kit
Iron and ironing board
1/4-yard wool melton; a brushed weight wool
Machine-sewing thread in complementary color

Woolen Beret How-To
1. With a tailor's tape measure, measure around the top of your head (or the head for which the beret is intended), where a hat would normally sit. Round up to the nearest 1/2 inch. This is your head measurement.

2. Print the beret template and cut out along the line that is marked with your head measurement.

3. Place the template on the wool and weigh down with a small heavy item. Cut around the template with a rotary cutter. Repeat to make 6 of these pieces.

4. Put two pieces together, right sides facing and edges aligned. Using a sewing machine, sew these two pieces together along one long edge with a 1/4-inch seam allowance. Open the sewn piece, and align a third piece to a raw edge, right sides facing. Pin and sew as you did the first two pieces. This is half of the beret -- repeat this step with the remaining three pieces to make the second half.

5. Pin the two halves together, right sides facing and edges aligned. Sew with a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

6. Use a zigzag stitch along the raw seam allowances to finish and reinforce the seams. Turn the hat right side out and set aside for now.

7. Make the hat band: Cut a strip of wool 2 inches wide, and as long as your head measurement plus 1/2 inch.

8. Match the short sides of the strip together, right sides facing, and sew with a 1/4-inch seam allowance.

9. Fold the band you have just created in half lengthwise, with the right sides on the outside of the fold, matching raw edges together. Press.

10. Match the raw edges of the hat band with the raw edge of the hat, with the band on the outside of the hat. Pin in place all around. Remove extension arm of sewing machine and stitch hat and hat band together with 1/4-inch seam allowance. Finish seam with a zigzag stitch.

11. Using a button-covering kit, cover a button with a scrap of wool from the hat. Sew the button to the top of the beret.

12. Using the narrow point of your ironing board or an ironing ham, press the seams of the beret flat.

Resources
Martha used the Singer "Confidence" sewing machine to make this beret. Wool is available on moodfabrics.com. Button covering kits can be found at any craft or sewing notions store.