Miniature Top Hat: Keeping it simple

Now that you've seen my tutorial for making a fancy little hat fascinator (If you haven't, Here You Go), I felt that I needed to put my own instructions into action and give you a little snippet of what I've done with this handy, dandy bit of knowledge.  Be aware, there aren't many pictures of this first attempt because well, it's the first try.  The first try either blows all normal conventions out of the water or is a simplistic precursor to the fantastic.

I made this hat using the 'Purchase and Decorate' method and I'll be honest, it was hard to get it started.  I'm not sure if it's just me, but when I get something ready made, it takes my brain a moment to make the leap to Creativity Land.

Courtesy of Pacroid.blogspot.com

Setting a design is always the hardest part.  It's even harder when your brain forgets that this little hat is NOT complete and needs some pizzazz.  Mine chose the moment that I needed it to create things to go on a vacation, so I borrowed mom's.  Her brain was stuck on netting and tulle.  The fluffier the better.   

It's not fluffy enough.

I wasn't so sure about this idea, even after she regaled me with photos of fancy hats decked out in fluffy stuff.  As a rule, I only like fluffy skirts, kittens and cupcake frosting.  I became a little afraid when she declared, "More tulle!  MORE!  Use the whole roll!"  But I did as she suggested.  I pleated the tulle on one side to form little lumps that remind you of one of those 1940s hairstyles and tied it into a big fluffy bow in the back of the hat, secured it with a few drops of glue.

Like this but with less film star attached to it.

I needed to tulle it up.  The hat would have been pitiful without it.  After we tweaked and poked at the hat, we both determined that it still needed something...  I decided that it needed something shiny to balance all the matte textures.  The end result was this.

Big tulle bow worn in the front. 

Big tulle bow worn on the side

The good thing is that the tulle bow feature looks great.  The bad thing is that the rest of the hat looks a little plain by comparison.  In the near future, I may add more to it...I need to go craft shopping first.