Christmas Hat

Working retail over the holidays kept me busy and tired, so I didn't go to many parties.  Let's face it, you're not going to be raising the roof with your girls if your feet hurt so bad you start thinking it might be better to live as an amputee.  No parties for me.
Knowing that I couldn't attend the Christmas shindigs or even stay in my own house to watch old Christmas movies really stung, so I was determined to make Christmas Eve fun for me- by making a hat.  An ostentatious, LED lit marvel of amateur hat-making science. 

This baby.

Let me start by first saying this: I had no idea what I was doing.  This hat is something made purely on a whim, with no prior experience besides making hair clips.  It also, very quickly, became an experiment to see how much stuff I could cram onto one small oval piece of felt without breaking my neck or having it fall off my head.  Despite this, I think it came out nicely.
I had no pattern to help in making this so I sort of followed my own mind.  It was actually fairly simple to make once I had assembled all the materials.  I'll include pictures of the less common ones.

Materials:
Two sheets of craft felt
 Two Hair extension combs

Hair Extension Combs: Photo From Human Hair Extension Manufacturer.com

Beads   (Any will do)
Hem Tape

Garland

I used something similar to this

 LED tea light
Christmas Trimmings
Scissors
Wire

Instructions:
1.  Cut the felt into ovals.  They will be your hat base.
2.  Mark where you want to place the combs (it's important that they're opposite one another otherwise it will fall off your head)  Hand sew them to one of the felt ovals.
3.  Assemble your Christmas Trimmings (I got most of mine from the dollar store).  Determine the basic layout you want them in before sewing or gluing them down.
4.  Hand sew or glue (E6000 for the win!) your Christmas Trimmings to the other oval of felt. I wanted a light on my hat so I had to cut a hole so that I could reach the switch.  I also wired a little golden Christmas tree light cover to it so the naked LED bulb wasn't showing. 
5. Hand sew the two felt ovals to one another, making sure the combs and decorations aren't sandwiched between the felt layers.
6. Measure the perimeter of the felt ovals, and cut the wire to that length plus 2 inches.  Twist the ends of the wire over it to secure them so they don't poke you in the head, then shape it to fit in your felt ovals.
7. Hand sew one side of the hem tape to one side of your felt oval.  Fold the hem tape to the other side of the felt oval, tuck the wire in the fold, begin sewing the other side of the hem tape to your hat base, keeping the wire oval inside the pocket formed by the hem tape.  Complete a full circuit around your hat, knot the thread, tuck the end into a hidden spot under the hat and wear. 


It's just that easy.  Why don't you try it?