Ready, Set... HAT!!

Action Plan for Today:

- Cover the hat the hat with the fabric (use pins to hold it on)

- Use the sewing machine to fasten the top part of the hat
- Glue gun or sew it around the edges, maybe half by sewing and then hand sew the rest
- May need an extra pair of hands
- Sew the lid of the hat on 

- Playing cards are just fine the way they are! Will need to make a band of fabric that will hold them since organza will be too loose 
- For when I get home I need to get the netting ruffled and then put on (get a colour order sorted)
- Spare fabric might make some smaller club, spades, diamonds and hearts tk sew around the netting
- Maybe add some large stitches with the metallic thread

- Explore different ways to make white flowers 

After making my plan for the day I remembered something that I had completely forgotten. I hadn't made anything for me to actually hold onto it, so I thought the easiest thing would for me to make some shoulder straps to hold it.

I had to sit in a very awkward position to start sewing these straps on and I'm sure that I could have done this at an earlier date but hey, lets make this as difficult as possible - sigh. I started sewing straps to go over my shoulders so I could hold it up easier.

View  from the inside

I also had to sort out the scratchy wires that stuck out from the inside from when I added extra wire to make the shape wider.

Shoulder Straps

I decided to make some handles for my hand to hold as well since it would give me a lot more support and it would be easier to hold onto the elastic then wiggling my fingers into the holes in the chicken wire.

For some extra support in the shoulder straps I made a strap that goes around the back of my neck this was a bit off on the angle but it will do.

After fixing those straps together I went to cover the hat with the fabric I sewed - with much luck I managed to get it all around the hat with only one or two inch of wadding that peeked out from the top, it pissed me off at first but I thought I could change my design to cover the slight wadding that showed and if I'f honest it wasn't as bad as I saw it at first (I overreacted - like always.)

I cut out a piece of white velvet fabric I found in the textiles room to go around the bottom of the hat so that the so that when I put the organza on the hat the check board wont see through too much - it turned out to be a good move because it tucked the checker board fabric quite nicely so I didn't have to glue/sew it down.

So the edges were wonky/fraying etc I glued the seam down.

With the organza on I did think I would have pieces trail off and flow out behind the hat the but it didn't look all that impressive so I think I will just have to wrap it around the hat and have something else trail off the back of the hat.

I had planned to sew the ends together with the sewing machine but since it was a bit of a tight fit and the hat is is a funny V shape I thought the best plan of action was to use a glue gun to fasten it one since at least the whole fabric would fit on properly on the hat. 

Since the white organza was covered around the brim I found some more colours and started playing around with making bows and seeing how it looks at different positions, colours and extra pieces of organza.

Then after exhausting all the possibilities with the organza I had planned to make a bunch of white roses and splash red paint (when Alice paints the white roses with red paint) so since I had some time left I used left over fabric from the band and just tried to make a rose by scrunching up the fabric and using a needle and thread to make it - but it kept collapsing and pulling out of shape.

For the second go I used the glue gun (my new favourite tool) and this worked at lot better but I only ended up with a small rose, which took a while to do as well. But it looked really good!

I might have to do a bit of research on how to make better roses and naybe I can look at using different materials.