Revamped Peacock Hat

This past winter I purchased a black felt hat at the local thrift store.  It was too big for me and almost came down over my eyes, but it had potential.  After staring at it for a week or so, I grabbed the shears!

I started by trimming off a healthy two inches.  Then carefully shaped the edge (quarter inch at a time) to fit my head and sit down against my curls.

Because it was still a bit big, I cut out two small slices at the edge to form a dart or tuck.  One is in the center back and the other lands on the right side (which will be covered by the decoration later).  Closing up these darts snugged in the brim just enough.

I sewed a length of polyester satin (leftovers from my gold skirt) to the cut off felt to make a trim piece.  I pinked the seam down to a quarter inch.  This seamed edge will form a piping.

The gold fabric is wrapped around and under the salvage edge, forming the piping.  The trim piece is attached to the brim by simply overlapping and stitching in the ditch.

Back on the hat stand (aka. milkglass flower vase) to decide the next move.  The new black band was too wide as it was.  I thought scallops would be pretty, but wasn't confident in my ability to cut them consistently so I opted to trim it down to the same width as the gold piping.

The decoration was applied over the side dart.  I hot glued the peacock feathers in place and sewed on a vintage coat button to cover the hot glue.  Also, on either side of the brim, I tacked in bobby pins with a couple small stitches to anchor the hat to my head. 

While I really like the look of the over-the-top, ostentatious hats, they don't fit my personality.  I tend to wear the low profile hats that snuggle down into my curls.  Hence, I seem to have a lot of beanies!

So now I have a hat to coordinate with my gold skirt and peacock sweater.  Must talk to the Mister and fabricate an occasion to wear this ensemble!