Make a recycled Mickey Mouse hat from an old pair of sweatpants

October 21, 2:44 AMEarly Childhood Parenting ExaminerAngele Sionna

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Making new things out of old things just taking up space in the drawer is delightful. It gives things a new purpose and is way better than throwing them in the trash (if there's something wrong with it and couldn't be used by someone else by donating it).

I've made pants, personalized shirts, bags and more all from recycled old clothes before... and my latest wearable recycling project is actually something I invented this month when my daughter asked if she could have a Mickey Mouse hat to wear while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse: A warm and snuggly Mickey Mouse hat, though you could use this same idea to make a bunny or cat. Fun for Halloween or any chilly day as well. Here's how I did it...

Materials needed:

• old pair of black sweatpants
• old bubble mailer (like UPS uses)
• Needle (you could use a sewing machine on this if you wanted)
• Black thread

Directions:

• Trace around the rim of a glass twice on your recycled bubble mailer to make a two circles next to each other.
• Cut out and you should have 4 circles about 2-2.5 inches across in diameter. These will be the ears - double thick to stand up on their own.
• Measure your child's head and divide that number in half.
• Find the part on the leg of your sweatpants that corresponds to that half-head size and cut off bottom of sweatpants at that point. This will be the base of your hat.
• Then cut off a section above that point that is about 8-12 inches long, depending on how big you want your hat and ears - the longer amount for a bunny and shorter for a cat.
• You now have a tube of sweatpant material 8-12 inches long.
• Cut about 4 inches down the old pant seem at what will be the top of your hat.
• Make another cut half way across your tube to the same depth. You will now have a tube with 4 pieces of material flapping at the top. These flapping pieces will become your ears.
• Take two of your four bubble mailer circles and place between two of your material flaps.
• Fold the edges of the material down and around your bubble mailer circles and sew to keep in place.
• Repeat on other side.
• Sew the remaining gap across the top of your hat between the ears.
• If ears flap over too much for your liking, just sew more of the circle parts to the "hat" part of the material.
• You can fold over the material at bottom part of the hat for a nice clean seam if you want or just can fold it up or leave it as is, depending on how straight you cut your material. Sweatpant material won't fray, so you don't have to sew it if you don't want to, I didn't.
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Note: If you don't want to go to all the trouble but you want to get a Mickey ears winter hat for your baby, The Disney Store does sell one. My sister bought that hat for her 2 month old as part of his Mickey Mouse costume and it's really cute too!