Frenchie Minion Hat

Minions are such fun... I love the Despicable Me movies. I printed out a picture of "Phil" dressed in his French Maid costume and made a hand puppet... (still needs a little tweaking before I publish that pattern). Encouraged by how well that turned out, I tried converting it to a hat... and here are the results! It was actually pretty easy to make. The hardest part for me was sewing on the very curly top frill in a straight line.

Size H hook

Worsted weight yarn – bright yellow, black, brown, white, silver or gray (I use a double strand of Vanna's Choice metallic silver yarn, since it's a lighter yarn. I like the metallic look.)

Small black sew-on gemstones (or small black buttons)

I begin all my double crochet rows with a chainless starting  double crochet rather than a chain 3. Here is a tutorial on how to do it:Chainless Starting Double Crochet

With bright yellow:

Round 1: Make magic ring, chain 2. 8 DC in ring. Pull tight, join.

Round 2:  2 DC in each stitch around (16)

Round 3: 2 DC in stitch, DC in next, repeat around (24)

Round 4: 2 DC in stitch, DC in next two stitches, repeat around (32)

Round 5: 2 DC in stitch, DC in next three stitches, repeat around (40). Change to black.

Round 6: 2 DC in stitch, DC in next four stitches, repeat around (48). Change to yellow.

Round 7: 2 DC in stitch, DC in next five stitches, repeat around (54).

Round 8: 2 DC in stitch, DC in next six stitches, repeat around (62)

Rounds 9 & 10: work even (DC) in yellow. Change to black

Rounds 11-16: work even (DC) in black. Change to white

Row 17: Chain 1, sc in first stitch. *Chain 3, sc in next stitch.* Repeat around. 

Top frill:

With white, make a chain long enough to reach from the top of one goggle band over the top center and down to the other goggle band. I think my chain was about 100 stitches, but I lost count and just worked by measuring it against the hat.  Make a DC in the third chain from the hook, then a treble crochet and another double crochet in the same stitch. Continue down the chain, making DC/TR/DC in each chain. Leave a long tail for sewing on. With your joining seam at the center back, lay hat flat and sew frill from the top of one goggle band to the top of the other, working through the bottom of your original chain.

 Hair:

Cut 5-6 strands of black yarn 3" long. Randomly tie them on rounds 2 & 3 at the front of the hat.

 

Eyes:

With white, make 8 hdc in magic ring.

Round 2: 2 hdc in each stitch (16)

Round 3: With gray/silver,  hdc in each stitch (16). (Working this row even makes the edge curl in a bit, giving it more of a “goggle” appearance. End off, leaving a long tail to sew on.

Sew a small gemstone to the center of each eye. Sew eyes on center, over black goggle strap.

Mouth: With black, chain 10. Leave a long tail to sew on.

Bow:

With white, chain 10. Make hdc in 2^nd chain from hook and each chain across (9 hdc)

Row 2: chain 2, hdc in each stitch. End off and tuck in yarn ends.

Tightly wind yarn around the center of the bow about 10 times. Tie off at the back and sew at the center of the black “skirt”. 

Apron:

With white, chain 100.

HDC in 2^nd chain from hook and next 14 stitches.

Rows 1-4: Turn, chain 2, work a decrease over the next two stitches. HDC to within 2 stitches of the end, work a decrease.

Slip stitch back up to beginning chain. Work  *SC, chain 3* in each stitch around the apron. Chain 85 for other apron string. Sew apron to front of skirt. Tie apron strings in back, tacking them down so they don’t come untied.