Bright Spirals Hat

The snow is falling HARD and fast today.. the whole morning was spent as a family digging the road out, I was glad after an hour and a half of digging when other neighbours started trickling out to help.  I'll probably be stiff as a board tomorrow and the way it's coming down we shall have to dig it all out again!  At least it looks pretty.. and we don't have to drive anywhere this weekend.  Matthew has built a humungous snowman on the front garden, it must be 7 feet tall :)

Today I'm showing you the buttoned bowler-ish hat 

I started off by making a beret over my usual circular resist, cut from foam floor underlay.  

The first thing I put down over the resist was some bright blue silk caps, followed by a layer of white, then a layer of coloured fibre.  On one side I 'drew' a spiral in the centre, then worked it as usual.  I forgot to take photos of this (what a memory!)  I used my hat block to shape the crown so it's more fitted than a beret.

Once the crown was felted I made a long narrow strip in the same fibres (1 layer each of white and coloured), and used thin strips of coloured fibre and yarn (the same ones as used for the spiral) to make stripes all along the length.  This long strip would become the brim.

I blocked the crown and left it all to dry

Pinned the brim in place

Then neatly hand stitched it

Not the look I wanted!
The brim needed more work

5 minutes in a steamer softened the felt up so I could mould the brim

I had a big fat felted cord in my scrap bag.. just the right size
I rolled the brim up and around the cord and pinned it in place, then left it to dry and set

Next day I added a row of quirky green buttons.. just for fun (and cos I have a secret button fetish lol)

I love the stripey brim :)

Have a good weekend

xoxo