Falling Leaves Hat!

I am officially obsessed with HATS! If you follow me on pinterest, you will see I am constantly pinning hats, especially ones made by the fabulous and inspiring; Frollein Von Sofa. She has the most adorable hats and I am completely in awe of her talent. Just take a peek and you will be hooked! One day I hope to own one of her hats (or shoes!) but until then I'm going to try and make my own. 

I wanted to make my own hat, originally to go with my Halloween costume, but it has since evolved into a Autumn hat. I had these pumpkins from the dollar section of Target. The suede, colored leaves I collected from this amazing store in NYC, Tinsel Trading co. According to their website it's Martha Stewart's "most favorite store in the world". If its good enough for Martha its good enough for me! 

The brown teardrop hat base is from etsy, as well as the comb that I hand stitched to the base. The trick to making a dimensional hat is to have some height with the pumpkin. I originally started to play with the leaves leaving them flat, but that made the pumpkin look silly. I used the hot glue gun to attach everything. The leaves are glued to the side of the pumpkin, and the glue is hidden with a sprig of berries. Of course I added some brown sparkly rick rack to the edge, which is from Fabricland.

I really loved how much fun this was to make and wear. I got some mixed reviews while wearing this in public, the lady at the post office yelled across the store how much she loved it! But I also got some confused faces and second glances. Lol. Guess it's not for everyone!

This was a no stress project, and I'm collecting stuff for some holiday hats! Heading to the garment district this weekend for some millinery wire to make my own hat bases with buckrum. Once I get the hang of that I can use my own fabric to cover hats! The possibilities are endless!