Santa Sack Hat free pattern

New free pattern alert! This Santa Sack Hat has a comfortably loose, slouchy fit and no side seams on the crown for a smooth appearance.

I admired Penny’s cute double-tailed Santa hat that she wears in a Christmas episode of the popular American sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.” This hat isn’t an exact replica, but its dual pompoms do provide a touch of whimsy.



I have a large head, 22.5 inches, so to achieve a loose fit, I worked a foundation chain with 88 stitches. To make different sizes, simply work a foundation chain until it’s a length that fits loosely around your intended wearer’s head. The foundation chain needs to have an even number of stitches, so if your foundation has an odd number, either add one or remove one to make an even number of stitches.

Hat is worked from the bottom up.

Fandom Headband commission

My friend Pam messaged me to ask if I knew of a pattern for a headband similar to the ones made by crochet artist Sydne Elam of Simply Squid on Etsy. Pam said she had looked but couldn't find one made with stripes that go around the head the long way instead of up and down, and she also wanted a layered flower on the headband like the Simply Squid ones have. (The flower part was not going to be difficult, as I already had bookmarked a favorite layered flower pattern designed by Melissa of Action Hero.)

I searched around but had the same difficulty Pam had in not being able to find a nice headband pattern online that looked similar to what Pam showed me, and Simply Squid only sells the finished headbands in her shop (no headband patterns for sale there).

It didn't take long for me to realize that I would need to write up my own pattern for a striped headband for Pam and then write a blog post about how oddly difficult it was to find a pattern for this particular type of item!

As I set out to design a pattern for Pam, my first question was whether she wanted the headband to button in the back the way the Simply Squid ones do, and she said yes. Then I crocheted a prototype, sans flower, with some green, white, and black yarn scraps out of my stash so she could see what I came up with. (When I made the prototype I didn't know what colors Pam wanted for the headband she had in mind.)

My prototype photos show how the green headband fits on a 21-inch wig form head:

Pam said my prototype looked like it would be perfect (with a flower added, of course!). For the colors she wanted brown, orange and white -- Cleveland Browns colors. She said her sister's family goes to all the Browns' home games, and it is really cold up there during football season.

It took me a couple of days to find time to work up the headband again in Cleveland Browns colors, but eventually this is what I came up with:

I didn't have good lighting for this photo, so the main color looks more black than brown, but it really is brown. I set out an assortment of buttons to see if Pam liked any of them for the button closure, but she ended up deciding to sew on a button herself.  I think Pam also was going to add a decorative football type of button to the center of the flower, similar to what Simply Squid adds to the headbands in her Etsy shop.