Hat Revamp

So it has been a while since I posted a project, I've been doing a few here and there, but by in large, I have been pretty idle craft-wise. So when Mr. Crocker bought a vintage fedora at a flea market last month and asked me to change the hat band, I decided it would be a quick and fun project to work on.

Here is the before picture:

Last night, I dragged Mr. Crocker to Hobby Lobby in search of supplies. We looked at ribbon and feathers and such until he was done with the hobby store. We decided on some brown ribbon and I had some feathers at home that I bought for another project (stay tuned, I might post it soon).

I started by removing the old hat band. I wasn't entirely sure how it was attached and I was afraid it was glued, which would have caused multiple problems. However, it was stitched on! Easy to remove. Just took my seam-ripper and pulled it right off.

My next challenge was getting a straight piece of satin ribbon to match the curvature of the hat. The original band was very flexible and therefore, was able to hug the hat and match the contours. It took me quite a while to figure out just how to do this, but it FINALLY hit me. Measure the widest point (right where the hat brims) and the narrowest part (about the width of the ribbon up the side), mark it on the top and bottom of the ribbon and then sew a miter seam to connect the two! Viola! The circle would be wider at the bottom than at the top. It took me a couple of fittings to get it just right, but here is the result!

It fit wonderfully! Next we decided to work on a feather arrangement to put on the side. I pulled Cullen into the dining room and made him do some work!

We did some trimming on the feathers and made our final arrangement. I hot glued them down to a piece of felt and then trimmed it down to were it couldn't be seen from the front of the feather bunch.

I also added a vertical loop to the band to hide the feathers behind. In hindsight, I should have added the vertical loop before I sewed the miter on the horizontal band. However, hot glue did the job.

Last I positioned the feathers and another little dab of hot glue, moved the band into place, and that's all she wrote!

So I always regret not taking enough pictures throughout a project. It always seems I miss the important steps for instruction. But if anyone reads this and has questions about how I did something, leave a comment.

Mr. Crocker is fairly happy and now has another hat for his hat box!