Everything Is Hats!

I found some thick felt from a craft shop (thanks for the tip, Anniina!) a while a go and wanted to make a few hats. They will be available in the Lumous Gothic Festival's market on Saturday. I tend to go a bit overboard with hats, since I love tiny fascinators, so instead of the planned 2 or 3, I made ten ;D

I've made a few fascinators before and had lots of feathers, veiling an fabric scraps that were left over from previous projects. I have usually used ready made hat bases, but this time with the new felt I made my own. I cut the hat base shapes out of the felt, wetted them in sugar water and placed them on top of full balloons to dry. The results were very good, all of the bases were usable and seemed very sturdy.

The most important part of any project: lots of tea!

The fabrics to cover the bases have been chosen and the hot glue gun is heating up.

Fabric. I didn't use every piece, but these were the ones I deemed suitable for hatmaking.

Some hat bases have been covered in fabric, other are still waiting to be done.

Ready bases!

Then all the decorations exploded on my desk. I tend to work by putting everything out so I can easily pick out things that work well together.

This was the first one finished! I used a PVC kanzashi flower I had made earlier, some black
glittery leaves, black veiling, glass bead and plastic Mardi Gras beads.

Almost finished, these still needed the hair-clips and finishing on the underside.

This one is so over the top I just love it! The white PVC base somehow didn't look nice, so I painted it with glitter and glue and suddenly everything was better. I also put the glitter on the spider myself.

And here are pictures of the finished pieces. Each has two hair-clips to hold it securely on, and a purple felt finish on the underside. I even made cute little tags with the names on them and wrapped each one in black silk paper.

Bat's Wing. Black velvet base adorned by little black sequin trim and cascading beads. It has a small bat and a peacock feather and an ostrich feather, which is stupidly cut off from the picture. There's also black tulle veil attached. 

Little Black. Sequin fabric base with hanging beads, black feathers and dot veiling.

Satine. White PVC with glitter coating, black PVC trim, paper roses, pink and purple feathers, a glittery spider and two tones of pink veiling.

Betelgeuze. Black and white striped base with a black feather plume.

Lucretia. Plum purple base with detailed trim and stripes with tiny black sequins. Pink flower, pink veiling and a black ostrich feather.

Black Hole. Black dotted veiling, glittery leaves, sequin trim and fluffy black feathers on a black velvet base.

Ligeia. Sequined base with trim, black glittery leaves and a purple fabric flower, with lovely purple veiling. Black accent feathers.

Queen of the Night. Balck PVC base, glittery black leaves, PVC kanzashi flower with a glass bead in the middle, hanging beads and black veiling.

Emmalene. Purple base overlaid with black lace. Lace ruffle, tulle and veiling, appliqué flower and a satin and lace rosette.

So if you are coming to Lumous and feel the need for a tiny hat, head for the Kuroi Neko table at Dark Market! I would have wanted to keep all the hats myself, but I have so many already these babies will have to go to other homes :)