This is a lovely gift for anyone who loves sewing or needlework. The base of the hat is like a book for storing needles and the top of the hat stores the all-important thimble, so you always know where it is. This needle case is rather fiddle to make, so take your time.

You will need'
Some pieces of felt, embroidery thread, and a print out of the pattern pieces. Which can be printed out freely at the SantasPostbag website.

Cut out the pattern pieces from the printed out sheet. Place the pattern pieces on the felt and pin into place. Put the pieces around the edge of the felt and close up next to each other because this saves fabric. Cut around the pattern pieces, there is no need to leave a seam allowance, cut right up to the patter.

Each pattern piece says on it what part of the hat it is and how many you need to cut.

Use embroidery thread to sew your hat together. Embroidery thread is usually made up of six strands. Split the thread so that you only use three strands to sew with.

Get the two top hat pieces and prepare to sew the circle to the top edge of the shaped top hat piece. Use blanket stitch to sew the hat together. Curl the shaped piece around to follow the circle piece. You may find that the two ends of the shaped piece overlap at the end. Trim the ends so that they meet nicely and over sew them together.

The top part of the hat now needs to be sewn to the brim of the hat. The top part sits over the hole in the hat brim. The blanket stitch will show on the inside here.

The two inner discs need to be sandwiched between the top part of the hat and the base of the hat. The inner discs are slightly smaller and need to be placed off centre so that the edge touches the back of the needle case; this will be the hinged area.

Attach the threat to the left-had side of the hinged area and blanket stitch 3cm through all four layers.

After the hinged area, keep the thread attached to the hat. Edge the brim of the hat with blanket stitch.

Re-join the thread to the base of the hat at the left-hand side of the hinged area and edge the base with blanket stitch.

Cut out some flower shapes in contrasting felt. Tack the flowers to the hat with a couple of stitches, to finish off the hat.