Hand Made Daniel Boone Hat

As all you who follow my blog would know, my family really likes Daniel Boone.  We did a unit study on him and have the whole TV series. Jacob even dresses up like him once in a while.
Last summer I bought a lot of faux fur material from a garage sale for $2.00. Then in November I ordered 25 real raccoon tail key chains.  I wanted to make "Daniel Boone" (or Davy Crockett) hats to sell.  We know that Daniel Boone didn't actually wear a raccoon hat in real life, but his TV character does, so it's fun to pretend.

So, here's the process to making a "coon skin" hat.

This is the "fur" I bought. This is folded over double. It's about 7 feet long and I got 2 of them.

 

Because it's sewn doubled together, I cut enough for 2 hats.  I cut a strip 4.5"x22" and a circle 7" in diameter. This was fun because I had to use math that I hadn't used since high school.(I know I'm weird, but I think math is fun!) To find the diameter of a circle, (the distance across), you divide the circumference (the distance around) by pi (or roughly 3.14). My circumference was going to be 21", so allowing for a seam allowance, I used a 7" plate as a guide to cut the circle.

 Next I hemmed the long strip for a nice bottom edge. Then I pinned it to the circle, right sides together and sewed around it.  Then I pinned the seam for the back with the tail in place and sewed that. Because I could only find real raccoon tail key chains, I just cut the key chain part off. (My sewing "room" is in a little alcove in my bedroom. It was really nice to be working in there for the first time today. I think it might be a little cramped if I were working on a bigger project though. But, I can't see that happening to often!)

Jacob tried it on for me because I used his head for the sizing and it fit perfect! I am going to hem it another 1/2" though, because I think it's too tall. But other than that I think it turned out really great and it only took me about 20 mins to make, mistakes and all.  So, now I only have 24 to go!

 

This post is linked up to; Growing Home, Saving 4 Six, Raising Homemakers, Hope in Every Season, Dandelion House Adventures of a DIY Mom The Better Mom, A Mama's Story Road To 31 Raising Arrows Graced Simplicity

Freedom!



This past Wednesday, Jacob had his cast taken off.  I can't believe a month has gone by already!  So, today, we went to a local lake so he could splash around.  The dog seemed to enjoy it as well.

 

 

At the hospital Jacob was nervous that the saw would cut his arm. But he seemed OK while the nurse was showing him the saw.

Then she turned it on and he started to get scared.

Then she actually started cutting off his cast and he was down right terrified! 

She had to cut both sides and by the second side, Jacob said that the saw tickled and was laughing!  To be honest, I was scared of the saw too. I had never seen one before and I thought maybe he could get hurt, but I tried to act brave for his sake. So I was happy when he started laughing and I knew he was in no pain.

No More Foil! Part 2

This was not planned.  But this is a follow up to the post I did last week, No More Foil!

Last night I was making barbecued pork chops for supper and thought baked potatoes would be great along side them.  With my plan to not buy tin foil anymore, I was stumped at how to go about it.  When I have food cooking in the oven, I just cook the potatoes in a covered casserole dish along with whatever else is cooking and they are usually done at the same time, but I didn't want to put a glass casserole dish in the barbecue.

This is what I came up with.  I washed and pricked the potatoes as usual. Then I microwaved them for about 6 or 7 mins to get them started cooking.  When I lit the barbecue, I put a cast iron skillet on the rack with the potatoes in it and covered it with a lid. (This is when I wish I had a cast iron dutch oven.) I closed the lid and let them cook while the BBQ warmed up and then they cooked another 20 mins while the pork chops cooked. They turned out great! Although, next time I might turn them once during cooking.

It's probably silly to see how long I can go without buying tin foil, but like I said in my last post, it's one less thing I have to buy from the store and I like that.


This post is linked up to; Thrifty Thursdays