Having acquired all the materials - wool hat (a la Old Navy), millinery wire, ribbon aplenty and a beautiful feather rose, I was ready to make my hat for the Girl's Inc. Hat's off to Women Who Dare event.  Yay!  I love decorating hats and making them very special.  In fact, when my time at FIDM was complete and with an AA degree in hand, I had a little hat collection that I sold to shops across the Bay Area and also in San Diego.  It really fed my entrepreneurial spirit, but sadly, not my pocketbook....more on that another day.  In the mean time.  Here is how this hat came to be.

First, the decorative (p)leather ribbon was removed from the outside and the label was removed from the inside.  The crown had a "fedora" shape, but I wanted a round shape, so I placed the hat on my mom's wooden hat block and used her portable steamer to steam out the shape.  It was pinned in place and left to dry.

Next I pinned out the shape of the brim to a more typical 1920's shape.  Here are a couple inspiration photos of Essie Davis playing Miss Fisher.  She is my muse for this hat and also the who outfit I'm going to wear to the Event. 

After trimming the brim to my desired shape, I machine sewed on a black rayon grosgrain ribbon around the edge, overlapping slightly at the CB.  Then I placed the millinery wire around the brim, wrapping the grosgrain ribbon around it.  The ribbon was then hand stitched in place, concealing the wire.

The REALLY fun part is trimming the hat:

Velvet ribbon is placed around the crown and overlapped on the right side. 

The remaining velvet ribbon was cut into 3 pieces and they were arranged on the right side as well. 

From pink taffeta ribbon with a black edge, I cut several rectangles with mitered cuts at the end and fanned them out into a semi-circle. 

The green pleated ribbon (see left photo) was pleated into another semi-circle fan shape and placed on top of the other decorations.  All trims were hand-tacked in place.

Small black & white feathers were positioned at the front and back of the ornamentation and hand sewn in place.

And, lastly, the feather rose was pinned in just the right spot.  Below are a couple photos of the finished look and a photo of my mom.  She decorated a hat that my daughter Emma had made a few years prior.  It turned out quite nice.  Don't you think?

The Hat's off to Women who Dare event is an annual Fundraiser for Girl's Inc. of the Island City.  I love organizations that provide leadership opportunities for young girls and teens and this organization does just that.  It was a fun event too.  Lots of great hats in the room and wonderful things to bid on as well.  My mom and I were even called out for having the "Best in Theme" hats (Roaring 20's theme).  Thank you to my dear friend Julie C. for getting me involved and also for putting together such a wonderful table of ladies!