This is another tutorial that I took almost step-by-step from another site, Cut Out + Keep

Before. After.

Unlike all of the other hat tutorials I skimmed, that called for things like tailor’s chalk, French curves, lining silk, millinery flowers, etc, etc, etc, here’s the required materials list for this one:

“You Will Need

Fabulous Bling Decorations

Scissors

Packaging Tape

Hot Glue Gun And Sticks

1 light piece Cardboard”

Making something you don’t need out of stuff you were going to throw away anyway is the best way I know for bulletproofing your mistake-insecurity.

Not Caring and Being Fabulous is less “Here’s something really cool we’d all like to pretend we could maybe someday do”, and more “Look! Something not-too-fantastic that was tremendously diverting to make and that you could do, too!”

I really like to give props to a good tutorial, and Brittany Marie’s made me giddy with its warm and inviting insousiance.

(You gotta earn some insousiance to rock a pillbox hat.)

Pillbox Hat Project (from Brittany Marie on Cut Out + Keep)

1) Get some lightweight, flexible cardboard. Cut two pieces out of it: one hat-sized circle, and one band about 1″ inch wide to go around the circle.

Be careful that the diameter of your preferred circle size will leave you enough cardboard for the circumference of the band that goes around it.

(Pictured right: here’s where I had to trim the ‘bowl’ from around my original circle size)

2) Next, line up the band around the circle, and tape it sturdily and generously inside and out with packing tape. (This step is much more fun than it sounds.)

3) Cut a piece of fabric a little bigger than the circumference of the hat and glue it down, carefully, to cover. (This was my first experience with a hot-glue gun, and by far the least fun step.)

Do the same with the wide band part of the hat. “Cut out a long strip of fabric and hot glue it along the sides to the top and fold and hot glue underneath. Try to be as neat and precise as possible.” That’s from the tutorial, and it’s worth paying attention to.

By this time, what you will have in your hands will resemble a hat. Dress it up!

I used up some Tinkerbelle Self-Adhesive Crystal Tape to cover the clotted mess of glue along the top, and some vintage Carnaby Street houndstooth grosgrain ribbon to smooth out the lumps in the packing tape.

Play around with the placement. I like mine high over a loose chignon. You might like yours over a Jackie Kennedy pageboy or a Mary Ellen Mark street model.

“Cock your hat – angles are attitudes.” – Frank Sinatra

Wear it with pride! Hopefully, this part should be easy and fun, too.

I can’t wait to make another one.

Now, let’s see your versions.