Channelling the Madhatter

I channeled the Madhatter and got a bunch of new designs for my hat after sat talking to myself and blasting through Pin-interest and Google images for inspiration - I got a lot from Alice in Wonder, Steam-Punk and New Orleans 'Voodoo' culture. So with these I went to my sketchbook and got out all the ideas out and then went back and did annotations and coloured it in.

I first started with a simple checker-board pattern but since I was trying to make the designs loud and mad I thought what I could do with it - A Chess Board!! So this design there would be a large horse chess piece tucked into the band around the hat, a possible extension to this design is I could stick actual chess pieces around the brim and the top of the hat.

For a bit of aid on where this came from - - I was watching HP: Goblet of Fire when drawing these - at the beginning of the film the Quiddich World Cup is between Bulgaria and Ireland. And the characters are wearing team memorabilia which include these big Irish hats. So you see where my inspiration came from. 

But to make it more AMW I added a ginger beard to the bottom I could make this out of wool or felt but I would have to see which material would break the bank first.

Not sure where this design came from but I was just planning on having it covered in buttons but it ended up looking like the sleeves on a shirt - but when I went to give or some colour it reminded me of classic stripy Dad PJ's. Not over fond of this design but looking at it did make me smile.

I went a bit Eco-green for this design but it came from when I made a design with the doll and flower headbands (very high-tech.) So I went a bit flower mad and just thought of making the flowers look like they were growing out of the hat - it was a nice design but I don't think I would take this any further. The flowers would be a tad difficult to make, cardboard, tissue paper, fabric?

No clue where this came from but I just started with the fluffy trim around the hat and it reminded me of icing on a birthday cake - so since this design was looking like a bit of a dead end I added candles and some writing to make it look more like a cake... but I think its the worst design so far.

Now I wanted this to look like a sort of patchwork scarecrow hat - which I think I achieved and I did like this mix-and-match look of the hat and it reminded me of the scrap dress that I did on doll.
The pieces of fabric will be sewn with large and oversize stitches in wool to make the the hat look more scruffy and textured.

I basically wanted to make a design that had a giant ass bow on it and so I started with that - but I wasn't sure what else to do with the design but I thought I could wrap strips of ribbon and fabric around the hat over and over again, so it would look like a ball of wool.

I know that I had originally said that I wanted to stay away from the Madhatter and all that since its so iconic - but I just had to make a design that was similar since despite wanting to avoid it, I really love Alice in Wonderland (big fan of the books) and the design possibilities that comes with it. So this design would be painted a green and then I would get some netting or old lace curtains, dye then purple, stick it to the hat and dab gold paint on the lace/netting. Then I'd make these playing cards to stick into the brim.

Inspired by my love of all things Steam-Punk, a clockwork and cogs hat that I would be simple enough to make with cardboard and paint - If I had time I would make the hands on the clock in a way that would turn so from the inside of the hat I could turn them around while wearing it.

New Orleans Voodoo and Witch culture inspired my next two designs and that's because I was listening to Disney's songs (don't judge me) and that Dr. Facilier's "Friends on the Other Side" from The Princess and the Frog - so I looked at the top hats that had influences from that.

I would draw the skull and then the coloured smoke would be the made of organza fabric, then the tarot cards around the brim would be made from card and then feathers would be a little hard to make so I might have to search Ebay for them.

The second I also really like but a major amount of feathers would need to be brought and but the skeleton would really be a problem since I can't make an entire skeleton from scratch and using a face one would be too small or too big and heavy - a design with many problems so I'll just shelve this idea right away.

This design came from a sort of cross over of a Harlequin/joker costume with a tuxedo - the middle of the design is supposed to look like a shirt with gold buttons, and the frilly netting is meant to be the ruffles on a dress shirt. I really like how it looked but I think I would use different colours if I were to develop this design.

Going off the Harlequin pattern I went to colours that I like the most and work best with - then the ruffles from last design I drew on the brim so its like the frilly colours on period dresses. I added a large mask on the design to make it more interesting and did remind me of joker/jester costumes.

This design went more towards Alice and Wonderland since I made the shape more of teacup with a rabbit and roses design on it - not really a fan of it if I'm honest.

I felt a lot happier with getting these designs out on paper and was impressed with what I got out and done - A final design is what I need to do next.