Homemade Hat

Speaking of Maria & Peter's wedding in a recent post has reminded me of the hat I made during the summer to pimp up a plain yellow dress for weddings. I had a lovely pair of purple and pink shoes I was dying to wear so that became the hat colour scheme so everything would match & clash with the yellow dress Gok Wan style! (I assembled it on my lap in the car on the way to Aileen & Pete's wedding in Wexford so excuse the piccies!).

I bought fake flowers from homewares stores like Dunnes and Debenhams & pulled the flower tops off the plastic stalks. The net came from the WoolenmillsDylon multi-purpose dye from my local chemist or hardware store.
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I dyed the net according to the Dylon pack instructions (which only took about 20 minutes) and hung it out the dry. I then gathered a bit of cardboard and needle and thread, all of which I had at home. The felt came from Hickeys.

I folded the felt over the cardboard to enclose and stitched it together. I bought the clip from the woolenmills also (but you could also probably buy from a bead shop) and sewed that onto the felt. I then turned the hat base right side up and started to sew the flowers on.

I completely covered the felt with the flowers. I then layed the piece of net over the top and pinned it in place with a broach I picked up in Primark.

Voila! The hat & I happily doing the macarena!