My Heart's a Tart Facinator (tutorial)

Start by making your flowers- I made some circle roses out of different fabrics. To see how I made them check out my Be My Valentine Bustier tutorial.



Cut two equally-sized heart shapes out of your felt.



Cut a much larger heart shape out of your tulle.



Pick out the headband you want to use- I am using an elastic one because it works well for this project.



Plug in your glue gun and begin to heat it up.



Cut your organza into a strip of your desired length. Burn the edges and make a bow out of it.



Take one of your felt hearts and glue the tip of your tulle to the tip of your felt so that they join together at their points. Then place your bow on top.



Glue down your flowers where you want them placed on your facinator.



Turn your heart over and place glue all over the back side.



Place your headband carefully down on your hot glue.



Cover with your second heart and let dry. Once dry clean up any edges on your felt and you are done!

DiY Straw Pill Box Hat

Keeping in the theme of millinery, I decided to make a hat making tutorial using a straw hat in a modern way.

Inspiration Piece





Start with your basic straw hat. Mine does not have a very large crown. If yours does you will not need more than the top part of your crown.



Start cutting straight up the brim of your hat to the crown. Cut around the crown of your hat carefully to remove the crown from the brim.



This is what you should have after removing the crown.



Next wet both the outside and inside of your hat so that it is fully wet.




Begin to fold down the bottom of your crown.



Using clothes pins or office clips clip down your hat so that the part you folded down stays. You can blow dry your hat to speed the drying time but you really want to make sure it is bone dry so leaving it sit over night is usually best.





Using acrylic paint of your choice, begin to paint the area of your hat that you folded under as a test area. Slowly work your way around the entire outside of your hat.


You will probably need several coats of paint to achieve your desired color. I put on 4 coats of paint. Be sure to let each coat dry fully on its own before painting the next coat.

Coat 1


Coat 2



Coat 3



Coat 4



Attach elastic cord in key places so you can slip your hat on like a headband. I used a very large needle to do this.



Once you've finished your desired color you get to do the fun part of decorating! You can add a bird cage veil, feathers, rhinestones, whatever you want to decorate yours.

If you want to make a veil for your hat, cut a piece of netting slightly larger than your hat.



Sew a straight stich across the top only back stitiching on one end and pull on the bobbin thread to gather.



Round the edges and you have your veil.

"I shall pull it to pieces when I get home and see if I can't make it up any better,"

Those famous lines of Lydia as she shows of an ugly hat she purchased have inspired Regency historians alike.

Like many Reenactors, I've had to improvise and look past the modern shells of so many things sold in stores now adays to find its historical roots.

Supplies:

$1 4th of July Hat at Target
Ribbon and trim
Velvet or other fabric
Seam ripper
Needle and thread

(note if you purchase a hat that has the trim glued on, use nail polish remover to carefully remove the glue from the straw.)


The hat I used was this cheap hat sold at Target for $1




I was lucky that the trim was sewn on the hat- this made my job of removing it much easier. I simply ran my seam ripper along the seams to remove the trim.




Because the brim of the hat had a raw edge it was important to stabalize it by adding trim. I used a black braided trim to my hat.




Take your fabric and cut out a circle that is one inch larger than the brim of your hat. Sew a casting for a draw string and run a ribbon through it.




Place your fabric over the top of your hat and pull the draw string close around it.



You can sew your fabric to your hat and be finished or you can add a trim around the base of your hat. I chose the latter.









For more ideas on Regency dress, visit my Regency page at The Regency Lady