Here is the post on mini top hats. These are so fun to wear.
These were just as much fun as the fascinators. But more
work and a little trickier to put together.
There are some good videos on YouTube that provide more instruction on
this. One of my favorites was a video on making the Mad Hatter costume from Tim
Burton’s Alice
movie for Halloween. It was really cool.
I’ve said before that I love Steampunk. And in the past two
weeks I’ve been getting inspired again to do some more Steampunk projects. I
spent hours looking at hats, fascinators and videos on making them.
The first one shown here is actually the fourth hat I made.
It’s cardstock, light cardboard, purple velvet, a black zipper, black cord,
metal washers and some necklace chain. And a fabulous yellow feather. I give my
husband credit for the feather. I didn’t have any purple feathers and as he was
watching me go through my stash, he suggested the yellow one. It was perfect. Then I added all the
embellishments.
I didn’t have any black ribbon or trims and while going
through my supplies was inspired to use a zipper as the hat band. It led to
this fun Steampunk style hat.
A glue gun is best for this type of project. It sets quickly
and you can move on to the next step. I tried white glue but had to wait for
hours til it dried before I could go on. And everything had to be held together
with clothes pins while it was drying. What a pain. Happily I didn’t glue my
clothes pins to the hats. J
Step one was to cut out one three inch circle and one four
inch circle from light cardboard (like the back of a writing tablet or a cereal
box). Then cut a ten inch strip of cardstock that is four inches wide. You can
cut this strip narrower if you want a shorter hat, or wider if you want a tall,
skinny hat.
Then cut out two four inch circles of fabric, a five inch
circle of fabric and a 11” x 5” piece of fabric. (If you cut a wider strip of
cardstock, you will need to cut a piece of fabric one inch wider than you
cardstock. This lets you fold over the fabric to glue it down.
Glue one of the four inch circles of fabric to the three
inch circle of cardboard. Cutting notches around the fabric makes it easier to
glue down.
Glue the five inch circle of fabric to the four inch circle,
in the same way. Then use the four inch circle to cover the other side. This
will cover your fabric ends and glue. You will put trim on this edge later.
Glue your strip of cardstock together by matching the short
ends and overlapping a half an inch. You will have a tube that is ten inches
around. Lay it on your strip of fabric
and start gluing it. You can glue just along the edges, the fabric isn’t going
to move once it’s glued down. Then before you get to the end, fold over the end
edge and glue it down. This will give you a nice finish. Then cut some slits in
the fabric extending from each end of the tube. Glue the pieces down to the
inside of the tube. I cut the slits to make it easier. Trying to glue the whole
long piece is not that easy.
For the brim piece, glue the five inch circle of fabric to
the four inch circle of cardboard the same as you did for the three inch
circle. Folding over the edge and gluing it down. Here I glued down the center
of the fabric with white glue spread thin. Then I glued the edges.
Next, take the second four inch circle of fabric and lay it
over the glued down edges on the four inch circle. It should be barely smaller
than your circle, but will cover up where you glued down the first piece of
fabric. I also glued the center down with white glue. The reason, after this
step is done two slits will be cut through the fabric cardboard piece and a
ribbon will be threaded through. Gluing the fabric with white glue will prevent
it from raveling. The ribbon is meant to be used to tie the hat to your head.
So cut a piece of one inch ribbon long enough to wrap around your head and make
a nice ‘little’ bow. It can be tied in front of, or in back of, your neck. It
depends on where you set it on your head. If it’s sitting forward, you will tie
it behind your ears at the back of your head.
Anyway, next is to glue the tube to the brim piece. Run the
glue around the inner edge of the tube, right on the edge. Then set it on the
brim piece, centered. If you can, keep the glue from oozing out on the outside.
You will put a band around but I like to try to keep it as clean as possible.
Next, the top. Do the same as for the brim. Run hot glue
around the inside edge of the tube, or around the edge of the small circle. Do
this quickly. You have to put on heavy glue to keep it from setting too fast
and get the piece on. You can lift the edge a little if it doesn’t glue down.
Then add ribbon or bias tape (or a zipper) to the base of
the tube where it attaches to the brim. I used a decorative cord for the top
edge of the hat, this covered any glue that is showing. I also used a double
row of it to cover the brim’s edge. Trim, ribbon, or beads are wonderful for
covering seams and glue.
Then embellish to your hearts desire. I added the feather,
chain and other metal pieces to create the Steampunk look.
This is another fun project and you can make a great mess. I
had fabric, trims, feathers and cardboard everywhere. I found a great way to
use some of the small scraps of fabric I had stashed. Oooh, maybe I’ll do a
patchwork hat. I am also going to make
some full size hats. I am having
I hope you are making great messy projects.
Til next week. J
Terri
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