Hat attack

I have been getting more deeply and deeply attached to hats as the summer wears on, they create shade, keep your face, neck, scalp and sometimes even shoulders from getting sunburned and as an added bonus you get to look like a french gardener just stepped out of a Monet or Mary Cassat.

Wide brimmed straw hats are about the easiest thing to find at thrift or vintage stores and they are always cheap cheap cheap. This one had little silver stars hot glued all over it, unfortunately i didn't get a before photo because i couldn't wait to pick them all off, i did it on the subway home! Straw hats at thrift stores are normally covered with junky plastic flowers or worse, so you need to just focus on shape and quality of straw.

This one had some horizontal rips that are easily sewn closed with a good strong embroidery thread, like my favorite from Purl.

Oddly enough, straw hats are easy to resize. I have a big head and vintage hats are normally give me a headache because they're so tight. With a straw hat, all you need to do to make it bigger is to gingerly remove the inner band if there is one, get the hat wet and then pull it down on you head while wet. Straw is very flexible and will stretch to your head shape relatively quickly, within about 20 min. Then you can stuff it with newspaper or plastic bags and let it dry overnight. I love 100% silk ribbons and shopping for them always makes me feel like Elizabeth Bennett in "Pride and Prejudice". To dress up my custom fitted hat, I cut a length of silk ribbon from Tinsel Trading (they are having an amazing sale, if you live in the city you must go now!) and tightly wrapped it around the crown of the hat, taking care to snuggly tack at the center back and around the bottom so the ribbon won't slip.Make a "fake bow" and attach over the back seam.


Not always do I want to be a french gardener, however (okay, i think i always want to be a french gardener, but sometimes i want to wear less girlie hats).

I found a straw newsboy hat that reminds me of Mickie Rooney in my favorite kid's movie, National Velvet. I collect horse show ribbons and had a broken one so i though I'd give it a go.

Oh they make me swoon.



I got this one at an antique store, you can't find big lots of them on ebay all the time. The back had separated off and I wasn't crazy about the center button, plus it is really big and not exactly useful.

I attached a vintage brass dog's head to the center as a homage to my dear old Puck, plus I think it's cute because rosettes are such horse things, it's unexpected to find a dog in the center.



Now I just need to find a shady tree and eat a turkey sandwich with a big old glass of ice tea wearing my newly cute hats, one for me, one for my sister and life will be good.