Hats for different occasions

 You may remember back to a post a couple of months ago,  I shared pictures from a local production of the musical Nine which I was the costumer for.  One of the costume "challenges" I came across was to create a very over the top Venetian hat that would be tossed about on stage.  Here's a close up of the result of said hat.

 

I took these photos the morning I was to return the hat to the costume shop (sorry for the messy background).  In the end I think the hat turned out very well and I must give most of the credit to my crafters-in -crime/sister, Leiza.  We discussed how we wanted the hat to look:  big feathers, check, a crazy bird, check, lots of beading, check.  I was so overwhelmed with all of the last minute things I had to do for the show that I was so relived when Leiza stepped in and put the whole hat together!  And as I said, it was going to be tossed about on stage as well as worn by 2 different characters.  I'm happy to say it stayed together through all of the performances and looked great as well!  

This was truly a diy project.  The bird we found at a craft store in the wedding department.  It was all white, so we spray painted it black and just dosed the thing in gold glitter.  Sadly, some of the glitter came off, but it still looks pretty gaudy (which was the goal).  I was going to post pictures of the process, but in the end I was too lazy and too distracted to document it all on camera.  What do y'all think of the result?

My other hat to share is much less crazy.  It's my snapdragon tam by Ysolda.  

 Yup, that cute Scottish knit designer has done it again.  This was my first knitting adventure using cables too, which ended up being a lot less scary.  What was a problem was when I ran out of yarn!!!  It was terrible and I was only about 10 rows away from finishing.  I decided instead of buying more yarn (which I couldn't find anyway) I would quickly decrease and then pull it together.  This does mean it's not quite as cool as the original pattern, but it worked enough.  I am also sad to report that after I blocked the hat, which I was trying very carefully not to overstretch, it did just that.  It was simply ginormous on my head!  My solution:  add some elastic thread through the brim.  It seems to have done the trick:)  

Those of you on ravelry, you can see more details about this project here.  The Vogue Vigilante girls are currently each making their first sweaters!  I'm actually making a cardi, but close enough.  My goal is to finish mine by Easter.  Hopefully we'll get to share our FOs here soon!   - S