A Tale of Two Hats

I love hats. I wear something on my head all different seasons of the year. I purchased this hat at the Rose Bowl Flea Market on Mother's Day Weekend in 2016. I found the hat squished in a basket for $5.As you can see it is too big size wise and pretty tacky looking. I knew it needed an update and remodel. For some reason, I associate my hats with movie stars. I have several Aubrey Hepburn, Grace Kelley, Joan Crawford, Katherine Hepburn hats. When I saw this hat, I right away named it Gloria Swanson.

 I used a heat gun to take off the white leaves and the old sequins.and rhinestones.

 This was the after view which is quite improved. My friends wanted me to save the feathers, but unfortunately they were not in good shape and working on the hat was hurting the rest of the feathers that were left. I took off the feathers, which made it easier to shorten the hat to make it fit better.

I added horsehair to a smaller fascinator that I had just purchased and sewed it to the hat along with a rhinestone trim that I had on hand. I really enjoyed wearing this during this past winter. It is very 1920's looking. I believe that Gloria Swanson would enjoy being seen in this hat.

 This second hat, I found on clearance for $16 at Burlington Coat Factory back before Christmas. It had a very large printed horsehair brim along with a large bow type decoration on the side.

 A very Kentucky Derby type hat or if Prince Harry leaves his girlfriend, I am ready for a Royal Ascot invite..

 So when I got home and really looked at the $16 hat, I decided that I wanted a second hat (there were three of them. My kids said GO FIGURE. I on the other hand had vision). That I could salvage the printed horsehair that I had never seen before and was easily more than $!6, and also use the second big bow type decoration as a fascinator.

 I know it is hard to tell but I took a row off the printed horsehair brim to shorten the brim and left the hat as it was.

I took the big bow type decoration off the second hat and added this smaller fascinator along with some more printed horsehair.

And got this rather interesting fascinator. My new motto of Go Big or Go Home certainly applies to this hair decoration.which, no lie, I enjoy wearing.