March's Hat: Flowers

 
We've had quite a bit of snow lately, and while we need the precipitation because of the summer drought, frankly I'm sick of shoveling the stuff. I've been dreaming about my garden, sleeping under its white fluffy blanket. And while I've been dreaming of flowers, the flowers have inspired hats.

I used a tutorial at Fleece Fun for no-sew hair flowers, but on a much larger scale. I used polyester suit lining in three colors: off-white, pale pink and medium pink, and make four circles in each color, each a little smaller than the last, and employed Angel's method for burning the edges to create a curled and ruffled effect.

I made an apple-green satin beret (stiffened a bit with interfacing), and sewed around the outside of the crown to make it more stiff.

All of the off-white layers were machine-stitched together...

...then the light pink layers were machine-stitched to that...

...and three of the darker pink layers were machine-stitched to that,
making eleven layers.

The layers of petals were sewn to the beret.

The final pink petal was sewn on with the glass beads that make the flower's center.

I am so pleased with the way this turned out. It's probably as close to couture as I can manage at this point in my millinery self-education. It's considerably more feminine and delicate than anything I typically wear, so I'm not certain at this point what I'll wear with it, but I do love this hat.