GIR from Invader Zim Hat Tutorial

I'm trying to finish up the remainder of my custom orders before starting on the new project. This cute GIR hat was requested by a friend and coworker, and I like it so much, I may make another one for myself! It was pretty simple (it only took one night), so I though I'd share how I made it. If you've ever seen the show Adventure Time with Finn and Jake, I just altered a pattern for Finn's hat that I've used several times.

You will need:

• Lime green fleece
• Black fleece
• White fleece or felt
• Pink fleece or felt
• Lime green thread
• Black thread
• White thread or embroidery floss
• Black embroidery floss
• Needle
• Pins
• Sewing machine (you can do it by hand if you don't have a machine)
• Scissors
• Fabri-Tac or other strong sewing glue (not necessary but it helps me!)
• Pattern from http://bit.ly/finnhat

Print the pattern from the link above. You will only need the 1 and 2 pieces. I made the sides of the hat a little shorter than the pattern because I didn't want it to come all the way around the neck, so alter the pattern as necessary according to how you want your hat to look. Watch the video below detailing how to sew the Finn hat together. Everything is exactly the same except for the details on GIR's face, his tongue, and his ears. When it's time to sew the main hat shells, you can follow this video for directions.

After tracing the patterns on the lime fleece (make sure and watch the video to see how to trace them!) and cutting them out, cut four rectangles from the black fleece about 2"x 4". Sew two of them together wrong side out, and leave the top of them open so that you can turn them right side out when you are done. Do the same with the other two. These are GIR's ears!

For his eyes, I traced the bottom of my glue bottle to get a good circle, and I cut two of these out of white fleece. Then I cut tiny circles out of the black fleece and sewed them on the white circles. Next I cut a tiny triangle out of the black fleece for GIR's nose. Cut out a small rectangle from pink felt for his tongue, and use black embroidery floss to sew the line on it. Use the same black embroidery floss to sew a running stitch down the middle of the front of your outer lime "1" piece. Place his little black nose on the running stitch you just made (I used sewing glue to keep it in place while I stitched it on) and sew it on to the lime piece with black thread. Place his eyes evenly apart using the nose as a guide, and sew them on using white thread. Check out the picture at the top of this post for reference on where to place his facial features!

Next use the video above to sew the rest of him together using the lime green thread, but instead of cutting holes in the top of his head for his ears like the video, insert his ears into the seam before you sew the outer 1 and 2 pieces together. Pin them in place and turn it right side out to see how they look before you sew, and make adjustments as necessary. Do the same for his tongue when it's time to sew the inner and outer hats together. Don't worry about the velcro part of the video unless you want it that way; I didn't!

That's pretty much it! Thanks to the guys from Adventure Time for making such a wicked fleece hat tutorial video. I like it so much better than any of the other hat tutorials I've come across. They all feel too tight and suffocating. And seriously, if you've never seen adventure time, you neeeeeeeeeeeed to.