Hat Trick

Let me emphasize first off that I am not a hat person. They don't work for my face and I have very short hair, so it just plain doesn't do much for me. But, I always wear one when I take a walk and I always take one when I go on vacation because that usually involves a lot of walking too.

I have a very nice "straw" hat (it's 100% cotton) with a brim that I bought last year because the hat I had, though I was very fond of the black and white stripes, looked terrible on me.

Nice enough, but a bit boring. It has a braided leather band. Never occurred to me that I could change it, until last week when an "AHA!"moment occurred (can't remember what triggered it). I could take off the cord and replace it with lace and buttons!

So I set to work...

Pulled out the lace bag and dumped it out.

It is all antique passed down from my great grandmother, grandmother, and mother. A lot of it was handmade by the grannies. I've thought about selling it, but I'm selfish, so I don't, which is good or there wouldn't be any for this project!

Picked out this crazy stuff, which was probably the edging from a tablecloth, as it is circular.

Nothing like being stuffed in a bag for years...

Anyway, I ironed it and a couple of smaller pieces...

and set to work.

I keep all of my thread in this lovely sewing box my mother made for me when I was a teenager learning to use a sewing machine.

Got the lace band on and made some "flowers" (I use that term loosely). I used to make fondant flowers when I worked with pastries for many years, but these lace ones were not to my liking.

Besides, as I  held them onto the hat and looked in the mirror, I realized I am not a flowery hat kind of gal.

So, of course the next thing that came to mind were...BUTTONS!!

Combed through my stash and decided to use the mother of pearl 

ones because I have so many (those of you who love buttons will understand).

Choose a large one to cover the gap in the lace where the flowers were going to go, but not enough of the fraying edges were covered, so I added some smaller ones.

Then I sewed more of the small ones around the band.

Ta-dah!!

Not sure I could make a career of it, but it works for me.