I was honored this week when I was offered the chance to design a hat to be worn to the Kentucky Derby. I was so excited at the craft store I forgot half of the items I needed... I started with a black wide brimmed hat, then added some feathers and bow. It turned out fabulous! Here are the basic steps in which I created the hat. Remember, these are the colors I used, you can use what you or your customer like.
Tools and Materials:
1 Hat
3 Floral Decor Black Feathers
2 Black and White Decor Feather Bunches
1 White Decor Feather Bunch
1 Roll 1 1/2" White Ribbon
1 Roll 3/4" Black Ribbon
Black Netting
Hot Glue and Glue Gun
Straight Pins
Needle and Thread
Wire Cutters
1) Remove any trim the hat my have, you want to start with a plain hat.
2) Measure around hat and cut a ribbon to wrap around the hat. Secure the ends where the bow will be with a pin.
3) Cut each black floral decor feather in half with your wire cutters.
4) Place the bottom half of the feathers and arrange them so that they hang over the brim slightly. Pin in place.
5) Cut a section of black netting about 3' x 1', fold ends in lengthwise to create a tubelike effect. Use this to create a bow. See my bow making section for a link to a great bow making tutorial.
6) Cut two pieces of white ribbon, one longer than the other (length will vary based on bow size and size of hat, you can make a simple bow shape to get a size idea). Create a bow with each ribbon, you should have a large bow and a slightly smaller bow.
7) Determine what size of bow you will need to create a bow in between the sizes of the two white we've just created. Cut black ribbon and create a bow.
8) Pin largest black netting bow ribbon ends on hat that we've already pinned.
9) Pin largest white bow over the black netting bow.
10) Pink black ribbon bow over large white bow.
11) Pink your last white bow over the black one.
12) Take the 2 top halves of your feathers and secure them between the ribbon trip and hat. Feathers should fall over the top of the hat slightly, pin in place.
13) Take white feather bunch and pin behind the bows.
14) Take 2 black and white feather bunches and pin behind opposite side of bow.
15) Take last feather half and arrange so that sticks out the back.
16) After everything is securely pinned, take a step back and ensure it is arranged to your liking. Since everything is pinned its super easy to make any adjustments.
17) Remove all decorations and place them in order as you take them off to avoid getting mixed up.
18) Start by hot gluing the ribbon ends together around the hat.
19) Take a large needle and thread and sew the large black netting bow, both white bows and the black bow the way you have arranged them so that you now have one layered bow.
20) Hot glue the bottom feather halves the the brim of the hat the way you arranged them. You should glue at the base and in the center of feather.
21) Using large needle, sew your layered bow on to your hat where the ribbon trim ends meet.
22) Secure the bow wit hot glue as needed.
23) Hot glue the rest of your feathers as you had arranged them.
Tips:
Use salon clips to help keep ribbon in place.
Seal edges of ribbon with lighter.
Try to leave some netting hanging over the edge with the feathers.
Take a picture after pinning everything in place incase you forget the arrangement.
So, after I made the hat... I had a customer so happy that she injured me in the process of giving me a hug. :)
Over the top hats can get pretty pricy, from hundreds to thousands of dollars. Just cause we can't all afford that doesn't mean we can't be classy. This hat was less than $100 including the hat itself, time and decoration. Keep in mind you can put anything on your hat. Try adding some flowers or anything else you like.
This is the final product and my more than happy customer.
