Welding Cap

When I started dating Curtis (who is now my fiance) he came with a rather large group of friends who have been together since high school.  This group of friends is tighter than any group friends I've ever had.  I guess that is because most of my friends come in singles, not a group.  At first it was pretty intimidating because they are so tight knit that you feel like an outsider (it's 3 years later and sometimes I still feel that way), but eventually they became my friends as well.  Every year "the friends" have what we call "Friendsmas".  It usually in January to give people a little time to recoup from Christmas.  Before I came along, everyone bought a gift for EVERYONE (we are talking 13 people!! $$$$$!!!), so I suggested that we draw names and just buy for one person.  At first they were not supportive of the idea but then we came to a compromise.  We would make "stocking stuffers" for everyone in the group ("stocking stuffers" consist of something that costs no more than $5 OR is homemade) and then draw a name and buy a big gift for ONE person.  This year I made padded cases for sunglasses/eyeglasses for stocking stuffers.  Some people liked them, some couldn't give a shit at all.  That's usually the way it goes, you can't make everyone happy. *shrug*  This year I drew our friend Sean's name.  He just recently finished welding school.  I asked him what he wanted for Christmas and he gave me specific things.  Specific things are great but they lack the element of surprise.  So I got him the specific things he asked for and I also included this welding cap. I found the free pattern on flickr here and the instructions for the pattern are here.  Now I don't know if you are familiar with welders or welding caps, but when I was a kid I remember my dad and Uncle welding and they always had pretty wild looking welding caps (flowers, paisley, bright colors, etc.).  I guess the louder and busier the better when it comes to these caps.  Well, Sean is a simple man who is not too into wild or busy, but I still wanted it to be fun.  So I decided to make him a reversible one.  One side wild and fun, the other side plain black.  This was my first attempt at sewing a hat of any kind.  It actually came together surprisingly easy.  Did I also mention that I was running short on time and had to throw this baby together in a matter of an hour and a half?  I'm glad that it came together so easily.  I think it's the first project I have ever done that I didn't use the seam ripper, not even ONCE!  I impressed myself.  I didn't have time to take the greatest pictures because we were in a hurry to leave the house.  We were already 15 min late (we were also the second people there! go figure!).  I think he liked it.  It's hard to tell,  he's not an excitable kind of guy.  He thought that I bought it at first until someone asked me how I made it and then he overheard and said "oh you made this?!  Nice!".  I wish I had a need to make more of them, but he is the only welder I know.

Here is a picture of the sunglasses case