From Scratch, from the Heart

After looking at the pictures from the royal wedding I found myself re-captivated by the hats and “fascinators”  Growing up I always loved to wear wide brimmed hats.  And was constantly looking for vintage hats at the auction and garage sales.  Hats seem to make an outfit to have that extra feminine touch. 

Things you will need:

• Newspaper
• Flexible wire- moldable but not too moldable that it will flop when you want it to lay down
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks
• Straight pins (I use quilting pins because they are longer)
• Needle and  Thread
• Interfacing
• Material and trimmings to decorate your hat.

1.I took newspaper (several layers) of course using the article from the Royal Wedding “The Moment.  Sealed with a Kiss” and put a round piece of flexible wire around it.  To get the shape of the wire cut it to the appropriate size of how you want your hat to be.  Because this is a fascinator and not a hat I used a medium sized circle.  Cut the newspaper about an inch larger than your hat frame. 

2. Take the newspaper and snip around the circumference about 3/4 to 1 inch.  This will help it to easily wrap around the hat frame. 
3. Hot glue the hat frame together.  I wrapped it several times but wanted to make sure it would not come undone. 

4. Take the newspaper and pin it around the hat frame.  I took every other piece then overlapped the other flaps. 

 
5. Once it is pinned take a needle and thread and stitch it around the circumference of the hat.  I secured it by going around the hat brim instead of weaving in and out. 

 6. Glue the newspaper flaps together and to the inside of the hat.  
7. Add heavy interfacing around the hat.  There will be overlapping but it will be covered up by your hat material.
8. Now comes your creativity.  Take material, feathers, tulle....you name it and cover and decorate your hat.  

Being a want-to-be creative genius I decided to make my own fascinator from scratch. 

The series of pictures are the steps that I took in making the hat.  I left out the pictures of how I created the look of the outside of the hat because I believe in originality and creativity.  

  

I hesitated putting this up before I have wore the hat. But due to special request I’m putting it up!  Look for pictures of me in the next few weeks with my new hat and matching skirt!

Also....look for the upcoming blog when I make a hat, outfit and shoes to match!  It is already looking good!