Side Project Princess Leia Hat

While I have a pretty good collection of hats, I have always secretly harboured a hat want-list. This stretches from one of those opera hats with the giant horns to a replica of the slouchy red cap sported by the majority of garden gnomes and of course a Princess Leia hat.

A quick Princess Leia side project led to my first stab at millinery (which led to several accidental stabbings of my head with pins, as I fitted the hat directly onto my head).



I started out with the idea of having three large triangles sewn together in a cone. I then folded under the point of the cone until it fit to my head and pinned the ends of the triangles to fit.




While wearing the hat prototype, I drew on where my eyebrows were to create the brow line, and traced around my ears. I also lengthened the back by a good three inches.




Once I cut out the pieces, I sewed them together and realized the front was a bit loose. My muslin had not an ounce of stretch unlike the coat lining fabric I used for the actual hat! I added a seam in the front and put some elastic along four inches of the hem in the back to add a gather.


Finally I cut four inch wide stripes for the cinammon buns, sewed them together, turned them inside out and stuffed them. I sewed the first two buns together and firmly attached them to the hat, resulting in a semi-adorable monkey effect. The additional stuffed strips were sewn onto the bun that was already on the hat so it would stand up from the bun rather than the hat and still be firmly on!


And that was that! Now the people on my bus route are treated to Princess Leia every morning on their daily commute and my ears are mighty warm under those huge buns!