"Indoor Gardening" and Sun Protection

Last Sunday was a bright, shiny day and Marble Man and I went driving in our favorite toy. It was soon obvious that if I'm going to spend any amount of time on the road, I need something to shade myself or I'll be a crispy critter by Summer's end. Especially with an upcoming 10 hour road trip planned to the Jersey Shore.

~

My studio is filled with supplies gathered for Projects Past: pretty fabrics that caught my fancy, ribbons and trims, and hats. Hats... PERFECT!

I dimly remembered a straw hat with grommets and a scarf tie somewhere in the closet depths. I dug around and found it: a hideous $3.88 Walmart purchase. Seriously. It put the "Ugh!" in ugly with rough raw edges and a cheap poly/cotton tie - a plain Jane thing just crying out for prettying up. Which, of course, was why I bought it all those years ago...

My favorite books for hats and ribbon embellishments...

~

First step: make a scarf from some pretty polyester fabric I'd bought years ago. I plan to make a blouse from the bulk of this, but felt I could spare a quarter yard for the Great Hat Rescue Project.

I'd originally planned to use one of my shibori silk scarves, but all the sun exposure this hat's going to get will rot the silk. Which would be a real shame. This stash fabric I have is a polyester chiffon with a sheer and silky quality - a worthy "Plan B".

~

But now, what to do about that rough and scratchy brim? I gathered up some peach colored vintage wired ribbon - just pull on the fine copper wires to make the gathers. I pinned it around the hat brim to enclose that rough edge and stitched it down. In another box, I found some soutache passementerie braiding in the same pink as the fabric background. I machine-stitched the soutache over the ribbon to cover the messy looking gathered edge. Beautiful! And, "ahhhhh" - no more scratches and getting caught on my clothing or seat belt.

The final touch was to stitch on the ribbon flowers and leaves by hand. I stitched them down pretty flat so they won't come off while I'm wearing it. The little car demands we drive like a bat out of Hell, and I don't want to feel the flowers pinging off my hat as we go!

I'm generally not a big fan of hats that tie under the chin, but I think I'll be a happy girl while wearing this new-and-improved chapeau:

"And a-wayyyy we go...!"