How fascinating...

It's almost time for the Kentucky Derby, which means one thing for me, hats... 

I did some hat-making in my theatre classes in college.  You can imagine that I don't use that skill all that often.  Then last year a co-worker got me to make a fascinator for a charity function she was going to.  My boss at the time joked that I would have to make her one eventually.

Then the boss lady got a new job in Louisville so that means she will be going to the Derby this year.  In fact, as her going away gift I gave her a coupon promising to make her a hat.  So, now it's derby time and I am putting the finishing touches on one Derby hat.  And by finishing touches, I mean hiding all my mess-ups!

She has no idea I have actually made her that hat I promised...

I feel a little guilty that I'm putting this on here before she even gets to see her hat.

So instead I will show you the fascinator that I made that I made last year and just tease/promise you that I will post this year's hat later!  Stop cursing me...I can hear you.

I wanted to keep it small because my co-worker didn't give me much time.  Furthermore, she hadn't decided on her outfit...which made things tricky.  I made her pick a few ideas and she actually went with me to pick out flowers and pieces for the hat. 

She picked a deep red, almost burgundy, color.  She picked the flowers and some reedy looking pieces.  She wanted height and some movement.

I removed the leaves and some of the plastic stamens to avoid bulk. 

I started with a 3" plastic disk.

Luckily I had some velvet left over that was just the right color!
I cut the fabric and covered the disk.  First I glued the fabric to the disk so that it would stay in place while I stitched the edges to the disk.

 
I decided the best way to attach the headpiece would be with loops that she could pin it into her hair-do.

I was going to attach two disks together.  One disk, I would attach the flowers to and the other disk I would pull the loops through and use to cover the back of the first disk so the place where I attached the flowers. 

 Like I said - I have to hide the mistakes!

Here is the finished product!