Recently I finished my first (successful) attempt at the tiny top hat (efforts at the taller tiny top hat failed).
He’s deliberately gaud-acious; on table he looks far more tacky on the table than on head. On the head, it manages to look perfectly vibrant and fun and festive. He has a white ostrich feather with prismatic white & red rhinestones, and the center of the flowers have red rhinestones as well. There are also black goosey feathers, plus years of black or red sequined ribbon around the edges.
He’s not a perfect little guy– the fabric on his brim is in desperate need of either double sided fusion or a hot glue swirl through the center. I sewed the head band on too narrow-ly, so I had to hot glue it wider apart. And I was SO excited to be finished, that I didn’t exactly center the height. Despite this, he sits rather well on the head and looks very cute.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Totally cute! Great work.
That is wicked!
So much fun! I wish i knew how to make hats…how did you learn?
Thanks, ladies!
C&C, I wouldn’t say this is truly technically making a hat (as the tall part of it is made out of styrofoam…).
I have a friend who has actually & truly made a top hat though, and she started with lots & lots of millinery books. She’s already an accomplished seamstress, and she sews a lot on SCA events (Society for Creative Anachronism– medievalers, essentially). Between my obsession with top hats and her obsession with hats & feathers, her “Can I?” curiosity got the best of her ;)
Other than my ghetto version made of styrofoam, I would suggest checking out any patterns from the big 4– many of them seem easier than regulary millinery, and would give you a good foundation to start on.