Hattie's New Hats

I had a fun time with hats this weekend. The first hat was a Summer hat which is a pretty simple style. In fact only the edges of the buckram need to be covered, so the hat is very light and should be quite comfortable to wear. I sprayed a little bit of color on the buckram first to give it a better tone for Hattie's red hair.

Now there was something I did not think through very well! Hattie's hair is SO bright it really catches ones attention. Sure limits the colors I can use for hats, though. I did not feel comfortable leaving the buckram white. It's not a pure white and next to that red/orange it looked pretty dingy. So . . . turquoise it is!

After covering the edges with bias tape, I added a spray of flowers and then played with different ribbons to embellish this hat. Goodness, we've got almost every color of the rainbow here!

The other hat I did this week is the first in a new category - hats with tips smaller than the head opening. The "tip" is the top of the crown in hat-language.

But before I show that one, I need to show you the Goucho hat! If you've been reading my blog, you know that one of my goals (number 3) is to make a hat each month. I blogged about the February hat - briefly - but never posted a picture! Well, we will correct that oversight right now!

This type of hat has all the basic elements of a hat: the crown consists of a tip and a sideband. A circle is then added for the brim. A great many different styles can be made by altering one, two, or three of these elements. Make one smaller or larger, make the sideband tilted, use only part of the brim, etc.

The Fez is a classic example of changing one element. The tip is made smaller and thus the sideband is altered to become more cone-shaped. To do this correctly a little math is involved. So how could I do so well in math at school and be so terrible at it now??! Well, let's just say I made more than one tip and let it go. Oh yeah, don't look at the back seam as the cone shape is not exactly quite right! I now know what I did wrong and I think I can correct it for the next time. I hope!

A fez is typically made from red felt and I found a darker red that doesn't clash too much with Hattie's hair. I made a tassle from black yarn and some fancy yarn that has gold discs in it. Topped off with a nice red bead I happened to have on hand. Can't believe the colors fit!

Now, we're all caught up on hats! Well, for the time being. The next lesson is a type of turban with lots of opportunity for embellishments. Sounds like such fun!

But first. I just downloaded the first lesson of "Journal Making for the Fiber Artist" from Sue Bleiweiss. I'm going to sit down and read it now so I'll know what I'll be doing tomorrow!