Flying By the Seat of My Pants

I have admitted that even though I have not started my Halloween decor, I have been thinking about it a lot...especially with all of the new things sitting so close to me every time I sit at my computer. And so, even though I really like the pumpkin I got at Walmart and think I know where it is going to go, I thought about embellishing it a bit maybe with a bow and some florals. But then, I thought about a floppy witch hat and my mind started working. I gathered a bunch of supplies because I really didn't know where I was going and began.

 My first thought was to make a hat out of crumpled brown Kraft paper. I have seen them done like that and they can be cute but I am not the biggest fan of paper crafts. If it turned out well, I would want to keep it for future use and paper things are hard to store without "injury". So then I thought about burlap. I wanted it floppy and thought that might work. But, in the end, I turned to felt. And, even though I have a very large stash of felt, I only had one small scrap of black left. I grabbed it and then some dark brown and figured it could probably be painted.

I started by tracing and cutting 2 circles using a plate as a stencil and then forming the cone from the scrap.

Next I cut holes in the circles to match the size of the bottom of the cone and then made cuts for tabs around the rim of the cone so I could adhere it to the hat brim. I wasn't going to use hot glue because I don't like the way it works on fabric but I didn't have enough Fabri-Tac left and didn't want to wait so I threw caution to the wind. Lol

I made sure it fit and then put a dot of glue on each tab and glued the two pieces together before adding the second circle to cover the tabs.

Then I used my Waverly chalk paint in the color "ink" to paint the whole thing. I watered it down a bit so it flowed easier on the felt and I painted the top even though it was already black just in case the paint gave the fabric a different texture.

Because the paint was watered down, it really saturated the hat and it is HEAVY. I'm not sure how long it will take to dry and I found the perfect spot so both sides can dry at once! 

And now I wait. Lol I'm going to grab some lunch and then see where it stands. If it is dry, I will move on to the next step where once again I have no idea what I might want to do. I think I want some embellishment...just not sure what. We shall see.

I'm back. Once I had the hat on the chair spindle, it actually dried rather quickly. I will say that now that it is done, I might have made the brim just a bit larger and I maybe shouldn't have doubled the felt. It isn't flopping quite as much as I would like but I think the unfinished bottom would have bothered me because this might find its way somewhere else and then it may have been visible...but, I digress. In any case, I bent the tip of the hat down to make it appear a bit more "rakish" and thought about hanging a spider off of the end but I really didn't want anything "cutesy". I think if I work the felt a bit I can soften it enough to keep the tip down and maybe get a bit more of a "flop" on the brim.

This is where I was initially thinking of using it-we shall see once the decorating commences.

I also didn't want to go too "cute" with the other embellishments so I just added a band of cream silk ribbon and a small tie of orange silk. As I get closer to actually putting this out, we shall see if anything changes.

We haven't had a drop of rain in ages so I am off to check the fountains and water all of the outdoor potted plants. Stay safe and stay tuned.