I have a darling brown hat that I have had for at least ten years now. It has been my favorite hat since the beginning. It has gone with me to the Oregon Coast, the California Coast, North Carolina and even Spain. Suffice it to say that it is basically the perfect traveling hat- getting smushed doesn’t hurt it a bit. And no, I don’t remember where I got it. Everything was fine until after coming home from Spain and I – gasp – washed it. Maybe it was something in the rain over there, but after that, it was faded and kind of sad looking. And then, I decided it was also the perfect hat for working in a bakery. . . and sweat lines appeared pretty quickly . ewwww.
So, the favorite all-outfits-match hat was sadly relegated to the sidelines for quite a few years. I’ve worn it off and on, but always very conscious of the sweat lines marring it’s perfection.
cute hat – sad stains and fading…
I have been trying to figure out how not to have to throw it away for about a year now, ribbon around the band perhaps? lace? But everything I came across was the wrong width, looked awful or any other number of reasons that it didn’t work out. But, one night a few weeks ago, I realized I had the perfect lace (correction: it was my mom’s lace I had from another project I had done). After getting approval from her to use it, I quickly got to work. It only took maybe five minutes and wowzers, the difference.
All I did was pin one end of the lace at the back of the hat’s band. Wrapped the lace around, putting random pins in as I went.
pinning..
Then I folded the ends of the lace at the back and lined them up as best as I could.
fold, pin, repeat
After that, I threaded some white thread (I didn’t have cream colored thread) and stitched my way around the brim. I only stitched at the top of the lace, and wasn’t too intense about that. All I was shooting for was it being sewed on enough to stay. And that was that – I now will be able to wear my hat more often again! Granted, the bit of lace around the brim doesn’t cover all the fading and such that is on the hat, but it separates the different colors enough that I don’t think anyone will notice.
complete!
*I know I have been a bit missing on here lately and I’m hoping to remedy that starting this week. I am excited about what I have coming up here on The Start of a Good Life, and I hope you’ll keep coming back to visit!
the start of a good life 