How to make your own baseball cap?

Now on to assembly! The easiest way is to make the two halves of the cap first and then stitch those together. Start by stitching the front and middle panel together for each of the halves. Place them right sides together, pin them in place along the seam and sew a straight stitch 1,5 centimeters (3/4 inch) from the side. But make sure that you don’t sew all the way to the top! You’ll want to stop about 1,5 centimeters (3/4 inch) from the end. This will make the next assembly steps much easier and neater.

And now for the secret trick. You’ll want to press open each of the cap seams with an iron. It may seem like a lot of extra work or an unnecessary step, but you’ll see that it’s the key to making your cap look really clean and professional. I found that pressing around the curve works best on the tip of my ironing board.

Next, add two lines of topstitching, one on either side of the seam. Like the pressing, this helps keep that seam really neat and gives your cap that professional look. It’s best to do this with the right side of the fabric facing up, so you can make sure you keep the same distance from the seam. Just make sure you only stitch through a single layer of seam allowance underneath. But after the pressing, that shouldn’t be too hard.

Now you’re ready to add the back panels. Place the panel on top of the middle panel and pin it in place. Again, sew 1,5 centimeters (3/4 inch) from the side, and stop 1,5 centimeters (3/4 inch) from the top.

Now you can really see the difference that the pressing and topstitching makes!

Again, press open the seam allowances and top stitch on both sides of the seam. At this point, you should see your two seams meet up at around 1,5 centimeters (3/4 inch) away from the edge.

To make sure the fabric doesn’t ravel, you’ll need to treat the edges. Since the interfacing will help against the raveling, it’s enough to cut along the sides with pinking shears. If you didn’t use interfacing, you can stitch a zigzag stitch at the edge of all of the seam allowances instead.

The two halves are now finished, and you can put them together. Place them right sides together and pin them in place, making sure the centers line up. Sew all along the top seam in one go, again 1,5 centimeters (3/4 inch) from the edge. Then press the seam open.

Take your pieces and give them a good press with your iron. If your pieces are as faded as mine, you should be able to easily see the stitching lines and seam allowances. I decided to use the same seam allowances: 1/4″ (1/2 cm) for the panel seams and 3/8” (1 cm) for everything else.

Trace around your pieces to create your patterns. Because I’m a patternmaker, I tweaked the pieces a little but this is not necessary! Be sure to mark the grainlines as well. At this stage you can add more seam allowance if you’re not confident sewing with the small allowances that they use in garment manufacturing. I also marked the placement of the eyelets. When I sew, I like to get everything prepped and ready to go, like a well-run kitchen!