Hat Show!

The Top Hat Revolution

                                              Top Hats -    They Created Quite The Scandal!

In January of 1797 a hatter named Hetherington appeared in the streets of London wearing a top hat in the shape of a stovepipe. Within a short time a large crowd had had gathered around him. There was such chaos that the officer of the law grabbed Hetherington by the collar and summoned him before the court. He was accused of disturbing public order. The good officer described the offense as follows:

"Hetherington had such a tall and shiny construction on his head that it must have terrified nervous people. The sight of this construction was so overstated that various women fainted, children began to cry and dogs started to bark. One child broke his arm among all the jostling."

The hatter defended himself by saying it is the right of every Englishman to place what he wanted on his head. The London Times agreed and wrote the following day:

"Hetherington's hat points to a significant advance in the transformation of dress. Sooner or later, everyone will accept this headwear. We believe that both the court and the police made a mistake here."

The Times was right. Top hats were soon all the rage in London and around the world.

Hanna's MuMus on Your Head

I had been one of the people on Hanna Still's care giving team during her last days.  Hanna was a very courageous sport, but she was supposed to wear one of those hospital gowns that are so unbecoming, and she just wasn't going to go for it. But I had an idea....so I took one of her beautiful custom made mu-mus and cut it up the back, adding ties, and voila! A Hanna-worthy hospital gown! She wore it proudly so I cut up several of her mumus and she had a whole new hospital gown wardrobe.

Anyway it was the Country Fair of 2013. Hanna had passed away almost exactly one year earlier. I had made several cardboard top hats to give away to people in my booth and to other friends.  My customers were wanting to buy those cardboard hats and I had to say no, they were cardboard for goodness sake, and not up to the craft standards of the Fair. Aw shucks. But it made me think "maybe next year".

Then, within an hour of having this idea, into my booth walks Hanna's daughter-in-law, Kim. She was carrying a big bag, and she handed it to me with a ceremonial air. I reached inside and pulled out a big piece of fabric that looked familiar.  It was the fabric from Hanna's mu-mu!  I looked in and the whole bag was full of the different fabrics and colors that Hanna loved so much. We immediately dumped the bag out onto the rug and danced around and had a magical Hanna moment.
 
Within an hour of the serendipitous fabric acquisition someone suggested another material that I could substitute for cardboard (peltex)! I am now officially inspired! You can bet that next fair there will be more than a few of Hanna's mu-mus being sported on the proud heads of people having a whoopin' good time. Not surprisingly, Hanna has managed to inspire even from the Great Beyond. She is with us still, in our hearts and on our heads.

Reassembled Flowers

Here's a great way to use all those old fake flowers that are almost free at garage sales and thrift stores!  Reassembled flowers make great gifts and can be used to embellish anything....just about anything you can think of......

 

Here's how: First, find some silk flowers that inspire you. It is good to have at least a few different flower choices, and ideal to have a larger selection of flowers so you can get your combinations just right.

Then narrow it down to a combination that inspires....

....and take those flowers apart. Save the leaves and all the extra pieces. Of course you can change it around later if you want to...

 

 

 

                         














Now an extra little side-track:   If you want you can use some gossamer-light fabric, tulle is nice, or even some lace. Cut it in a 4" X 2" strip. You can vary this size to suit your design of course. Fold it in half the long way and glue the sides together with little teensy dots of hot glue .

Gather and glue the ends together. I can't stress enough how a little bit of glue will go a long way....as small as you can possibly get it....

 

Glue down any flappage.

Using a very tiny amount  of glue again, glue the bottom edge to itself until you have just a tiny hole left in the middle.

Use some metallic spray paint on the little plastic pieces that you set aside earlier...

I'm inserting the smaller gold piece into the larger one....that may be fancier than you want to get though!.

Now we put it all together!  Lay out your flower as you would like to have the finished piece...

 Starting from the back and using the tiniest bit of hot glue you can get away with, go ahead and glue your pieces together, large pieces first and then the smaller pieces....

 Put that green piece on that holds the shape of the flower.....

Put a bead in the very center by blobbing a spot of hot glue (not such a tiny amount this time, a medium-sized blob, about the size of a small pea), put your bead on a pin and put it in the glue you just blobbed, and pull the pin out.

Put your leaves on and you are done!

...And if you don't get it perfect it will look more like a real flower, so give yourself a break. You don't want them thinking that a machine made it!