Insanity Is Progressive

So I've made a few hats, and it was fun. Thinking about modifications, different materials, embellishment... I swear, it feels like my brain is on fire. I went to two different fabric stores on Friday, and Friday night I also hit a thrift store. I have more than enough stuff to keep me busy for a while, but I am dying to get into the garments I bought to remake into hats.

I found three blazers, three blouses and a skirt, and have already deconstructed one of the blazers (saving the lining to line the hat!) and will hack up the others soon. Because they are fitted, I don't have large seamless pieces to work with, but I think I can still manage.

Here's my haul:

I also bought Vogue patterns 7890, 8681, 8869 (left to right, below) and already had McCall's 2692 (see the Hats post from a few days ago). Plus I found an excellent video tutorial for a pillbox hat that I really want to try.

I'm going to use the instructions from the pillbox video first, on some scrap fabric before I commit to something I really want to turn out right. I want that practice hat to be something I don't mind if it doesn't work -- but that I'd still wear if it does! Once I know I can make it work, I'll use my fabric salvage. Then I think I have to make that patchwork beret; love that! And I'm pretty sure I must make some more of those little top hats.

I had a crazy thought this morning, before the caffeine hit my bloodstream: Wouldn't it be awesome to make a hat a day? Then I realized how insane that would be; 365 hats?! Even if I gave a bunch away, what it the hell would I do with them all? OK, hat a week, then, my idiot brain says. No -- 52 hats is still unmanageable. Fine, how about one a month? Fine. Fine. OK! (Ahem... everyone has conversations with themselves, right..?)

SO! A hat a month, and if I make more, fine, but I want to do one "official" hat each month, that will be meaningful in some way to me regarding the month/season/holiday.

Yes, indeed. Insanity is progressive. By the end of the year, I'll need a fetching canvas-and-leather chapeau to go with my straightjacket. 

Hallowe'en Necklace-to-Be

A few years ago, my mom, a friend of ours, and I went to the Bead & Button show up in Milwaukee. As we wandered, I picked up some gorgeous raku ceramics, some dyed mother of pearl, and some Hallowe'en-themed lampwork. On the ride back home, I started describing an idea I had for a mixed media necklace for Hallowe'en. Wool beads, wooden beads, felt, fabric, Shrinky Dink, paper, polymer clay... I sketched quickly (and crudely - I'm useless with drawing) and Mom and Melinda added their 2¢ as well.

I have made a few pieces from that original idea (the mini needle-felted sculptures, an experiment with mokume gane, and some of my first felted beads), and Melinda had made some lampwork ghosts for me, plus the little ceramic hat-wearing ghostie from her as well. Most of this, like the idea that spawned it, moulders in a box, waiting for me to finish it. I want to work on it, I can't wait to see my creation completed, but... like many of my projects, it has stalled. Too many ideas! I stare at them when my eyes close and it's so overwhelming!

Maybe if I leave The Box out where I have to look at it all the time, perhaps then I will complete my masterpiece and have something to show off this Hallowe'en.