Making an Upcycled Jester Hat

My husband has been encouraging me to try and make some hats out of upcycled sweaters. New territory for me.  After seeing the beautiful coats that Katwise makes, I figured I'd give it a try.  I love what she does with color.  Be sure and visit her shop if you've never been there. http://www.etsy.com/shop/katwise?ga_search_query=katwise&ga_search_type=seller_usernames

Truth is,  I've been to the fabric store so many times, all their fabric is starting to look like old wallpaper.  You know how when you first put up wallpaper, you just love it...Think it's the greatest!  A year or two later you get tired of it and wonder, what was I thinking?

Yesterday I hit the local thrift shop and bought 2 bags full of wool sweaters.  Dry cleaned them. So I'm off to try and figure out how to turn a sweater into a hat.  Starting with the Angora blended sweaters.  I love the feel of Angora, but my attempts to felt angora in the past have not been good, so this is has not been felted.   I'll felt the pure wool ones before working with them.

Starting with my standard jester hat, I've made and sold alot of these, so it's a pattern I'm really comfortable with.





I like how the embellishment accents the hat.  What do you think?  I need feedback.

Things I've learned so far:
 
   1. Make your squares of wool approximately the same size.
    2. Bead embellishments and sergers don't get along...3 broken needles later.
    3. Sweater wool stretchs alot, in fact too much  Have to put elastic in the headband or they will fall off peoples heads.
    4. Make large patchwork pieces and cut your pattern from that.
    5. Pay attention to the direction of the knitting.
    6. Sweaters aren't cheap even at the thrift store.  I'm going to have to start begging my friends for their old sweaters.