Wire Frame Hat How To...Part 6A

The decorating part of the hats I want to split up into two posts.  The first one is Mama's 1903 toque.

I saw this hat from the MET and absolutely fell in love with it!  It has been in my "WILL MAKE ONE DAY IF IT KILLS ME" file forever.  It is just so light and airy and feminine!  

This is the material we chose to cover her hat with.  We got it at the Farm Chicks Antique Show when Mom and I went in June.  As soon as I saw it draped over an antique 3 over 3 window, I know what it was to become.  There were 2 panels for $10.00 and I made Mom buy them!  hahahahaha!!!

Ok, so after pondering how to begin the decorating of this toque, I decided on covering the brim first.  I flipped the hat over onto its top and started pinning the beautiful lace edging to the brim, placing the pointed corner directly center.  Working, tweeking, pinning and molding as I went, I finally got the brim covered to my satisfaction.

Step 2:  Flipping the hat so that it was right side up, I laid the lovely lace panel, which was now just the super soft tulle that the lace was sewn to, on top of the hat.

Wanting the swirled look of the MET hat, I pinched the very center of the tulle and between my thumb and index finger and started twisting.

And kept twisting.

See the little spiraling?

After the initial twist, it was rather time consuming keeping the spiraling up.  I ended up just moving the tulle around, keeping the hat in one place, and pinning every inch or so.  I re-did a lot and re-positioned a lot.  This step took me about 45 minutes.  

Finally, finally, I got the swirl the way I liked it.

I tool the antique netting down the side of the crown.

After tacking the swirl down onto the crown and crown side, I used more of the fabulous antique lace to cover the side of the crown and finished sewing on the lace!

Antique embellishments were added including an ostrich plume, buckle, and lovely wide ribbon!

The final step was adding the lining to the underside.  

Finished!!!