The under the sea hat

So, I started with this, a sort of black felt skullcap with various types of fabric manipulation on it and a crappy veil. I finally decided that, from the look of it, it must have been a millinery student's project, where they learned different techniques. Knowing it wasn't a valuable vintage treasure allowed me to feel okay with hacking it up.

And this was the pile of possibilities (that's like the room of requirement)

First I took the crappy veil off, and then cut off most of the texturey pieces that had been layered onto it. Then I covered it with a sheer purple fabric that had large chunks of glitter on it, but I didn't sew it down, only pinned it.

Next I put a layer of sheer burgundy over the hat, but this layer was deliberately uneven and dimensional, rumpled in places like a brain or something. Now, I sewed through all layers, attaching 'soap bubble' beads at every stitch. I've used these clear with AB finish beads in lots of undersea quilts for underwater bubbles. On the front and sides I tucked the sheer under the edge and sewed it under, but at the back I let the bulk of fabric hang down the back and cut it into wide strands.

Since this was supposed to have an under the sea theme, I needed sea shells. I chose an appropriate small crafts tool and drilled holes in some shells.

These, with some pearls, were applied to the back of the hat where the long dangling strands were.

I also took some wide, sheer ribbons in purple and gold and tucked them in with the dangling strands. The strands, I was hoping, would be sort of seaweedish, while the hat itself was supposed to be sort of brain coral. Or something. The finished hat:

It took me all day to make that fool thing. It's not really as bad as I thought at first, but it really wasn't the glorious creation I'd hoped to make!