How to Measure For My Hats

Hello! Welcome to the blog for my ArtFire studio..mizdarlin's hats and jewelry...which I thought I'd post here too..
Because I sometimes have problems with buyers and sizing, I thought I'd explain a bit about how to know if a hat will work for you, or whoever the hat is going to.
I have provided, as an example, a medium sized brown earflap hat..
This hat measures in at 23" (58 cm) at the opening, which is what I call the area at the very bottom of the hat body, before the earflap braids...
In this particular case, the 23" is also identified as "before stretching", which means that it can and will stretch comfortably within a 1" range.
If you are have a 22" head circumference, don't worry, this hatwon't be too big, but I wouldn't go any smaller.
Now of course, the question is, where and how do you measure?
Use a soft cloth tape if available, or a piece of string that you can measure afterwards, and, starting at mid-forhead, measure around your head going across your ears, not behind them, and finish again at mid-forehead, snug but not tight, ...this will give you a general idea of your 'size'.
The reason I do not use typical hat size measurements, e.g., 6 1/2, 7 5/8, etc. is because they don't have meaning in stretching hats..
The average adult female has a head from 19" to 22"..if you are someone who can walk into any store and try on a "one size fits all" hat and it fits, or is even too big, you fall into this range..and most of my hats are labeled as Small (19"-20") in this range, or Medium (21"-23").
Children's 'sizes' can be problematical..believe it or not, most kids from about 2 years old have heads only 4" to 6" smaller than an adult, around..
So, when I list the measurements for a child's hat, a newborn comes in at around 12", 3 months to 6 months is 14", and from one year onward, I usually list from 14" to 16" and up..many girls, for instance, from 3 or 4 years are wearing 19" hats..(please remember that these are "averages", and most of the hats have 'give' within a one inch range.)
It is a difficult question to sometimes find the exact size in the exact hat, I know, which is why I do custom work..if you love a hat that is the wrong size, let me know, and chances are that I can do a version just for you at the same price.