Can't leave well enough alone...

...when it comes to crafting. Nope, just not possible.



We decided to try dying the tan felt pork pie pirate hat I posted about with black hair dye! We convinced ourselves that the tan just wasn't an appealing color on us. But, after hindsight, I think I should have just wore it with my tan/blue tabistry corset and saved myself a whole lotta trouble. :)

Below is a pic just after the dying:



Don't get me wrong, I like it now much better than it started, but some ideas just don't turnout as you hope and can cause a mass of frustration. The dying worked alright, but I don't recommend it unless you're desperate. We only had one bottle of the hair dye and ran out on the inside. You can;t really tell in the pics, but since there wasn't enough to really get it soaked through, it has a kinda old faded brownish gray look to the top of it. It shrunk quite a bit too (as you can see in the before and after) while I was trying to rinse all the excess dye out. And on top of all that, it really smells bad. :) Not sure how long that will last, but I'm sure it will fade (along with the color) in time. :) The upside for the hat, though, is that the shrinking made the felt much stiffer and sturdier, now.



I continued fussing with this hat some more. I added some lace around the edge. I sewed it to the edge with a zigzag stitch in gold metallic thread.



The rooster pin was an after thought. I'm calling it a "cock"-ade. It was a pin we found a long time ago at the same flea market the hat was from. And, the hat pin sticking out the back of the second pic is another project we are currently working on.



We got the idea to make Victorian-style hat pins out of wire hangers and bits of stuff we have lying around. It has to be the thinner flimsy hangers. You don't want to put huge holes in your hat. But, you also don't want the pin to be so thin it becomes bendy and won't stick through the hat. I grinded the tips with the dremel. I should have polished off the yellow coating on the wire, but I kinda liked the gold-tone.



For my first attempt, I used some acrylic red beveled grapes my mom bought and some cheap beads. The second attempt, I used cheap artificial flower parts and a piratey button.



Still planning to make the dice beads I mentioned in my last post. Guess I have to go find my own dice. My daughter has some, but won't let me have one. ;(