Making Fascinator Hats

My daughter, Hannah, and me wearing
our 50s Fascinator Hats.

I came up with the idea of giving my daughter a 50s Housewife Shower before her wedding. You know, pearls and white gloves and jello molds and deviled eggs...

I wanted a 50s style hat to wear... one of those little "Lucy" hats... Google to the rescue! I found tons of info on fascinator hats... it seems there's a renewed fashion craze since Prince William's Kate is fond of these millinery creations. I made myself one with just a few bits of felt, tulle, ribbon, and charms. I enjoyed making my hat so much, I ended up making 24 hats... enough for all the guests at the shower.

Here's how I made them...

I started out with a round of stiffened felt (I found stiffened felt at JoAnn Fabrics) and used a cottage cheese lid for a pattern... I just marked around the lid and cut out the felt.

Since our heads are not flat, in order to give the hat base a little curve to fit better, I cut a slit from one edge of the felt to the center.

And overlapped the edges of the slit to create sort of a dart.

I sewed the "dart" into place using my sewing machine...

Next I ran a quick gathering seam of thread through a piece of folded tulle and gathered it up into a circle, and sewed it to the top of the felt circle (I used my sewing machine, but this step could easily use hand sewing or even hot glue).

On the back side of the felt circle, I hand sewed a simple plastic hair comb to attach the finished hat to my head.

Then comes the fun part! I heated up my hot glue gun and started gluing on feathers...

I added a bow made from some scrap ribbon I had on hand... and finished it off with a little charm (found packages of charms/buttons also at JoAnn Fabrics)

And that, my friends, is how you make a fascinator hat when you are living on a budget! 

A few more fascinators I made...