Cross Stitch Patterns by designer Pamela Kellogg of Kitty And Me Designs

The Blog Of Cross Stitch Designer Pamela Kellogg
Kitty And Me Designs

Add This To

Kitty And Me Designs

Celebrating 35 years of Needlework!!!!

Monday, July 26, 2010

Taking Apart An Old Hat Tutorial

Bubba & I hit 2 Flea Markets yesterday!  I didn't find anything all that exciting but I did pick up this ugly old hat for $6.00:


I buy these these old hats for the vintage flowers.  Many times, they're velvet and silk and usually in very good shape.  I buy them when I find them for around $4 - $6 and then I take them apart.  This may seem like a rather dumb tutorial but I thought someone out there may like know how to do this.

In most cases, the glue on these hats is rather brittle and the flowers will come off easily but I have had a few that were a big old bear to get off!!!

First, I started on this one by removing the leaves:


The leaves & flowers are usually glued to each other.  Find a starting point and carefully start pulling the leaves or flowers away from the mesh base.


Silk flower petals may tear a little.  Do your best to carefully pull them off and keep in mind that if they tear, it adds to the charm and raggyness of the flowers.  I for one, love the raggy look of vintage things!  They can always be slightly trimmed with a pair of scissors.


There may be areas where you just have to cut the mesh base to get the flowers off.


Once I had the flowers off of the sides of the hat, I cut the mesh base on the top off.


This just makes it a wee bit easier to get the rest of the flowers off.

Continue to carefully pull the flowers off the top.


I pulled them all off the top of the hat and then I pulled them off of each other.  And now I have a nice bagful of silk & velvet vintage flowers & leaves!


It takes about 1/2 an hour to tear one of these old hats apart but it's well worth it.  The flowers can be used on crazy quilting, art quilts, cards, art dolls...just about anything!  They can be sewn on or glued on with a glue gun.  The can also be glittered!!!

If you find one for a few dollars, give it a try!  It's fun to re-purpose these old flowers on new projects!

If you would like to see some the projects I use these Vintage Millinery Flowers on, please visit my Shabby Chic Boutique at Etsy!

When I finished tearing that old hat apart, I did some baking!  My Kitchaid was calling to me!  LOL!!!  I made some Banana muffins with chocolate chips:

Muffins


I just used a regular Banana Muffin recipe and replaced the nuts with chips.  Scott always laughs at me because I put chocolate chips in everything!!!

Then I made a batch of Sugar cookies with cinnamon and chocolate chips:

Cookies


This is my basic Drop Sugar cookie recipe.  You can find it in my sidebar.  I added 3/4 of a teaspoon of cinnamon to it.

By the time I was done baking, it was late afternoon and Bubba had gotten the headlights on our Model A:

Car 2


Is this incredible or what?  He's been working on this car for 7 years now and it's really starting to come together.  He has the running boards on it now too!

Finally for today, I'll leave you with an update on my Autumn purse block:

Autumn Purse


This is ready for beading now.  I'll start on that later today!

Before I head out and start my day, I wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the sweet comments that you've left for me on my depression & anxiety discussions.  If any one would like to share a link to the articles on their blog, please feel free to do so.  I truly feel that if I can help even one person who's going through a horrible depression experience, then my energy in writing these articles is so worth it.  My next article will be available this week.

6 comments:

Judy S. said...

Hi Pam, I've been spending time outside instead of blogging and finally caught up with you. So glad you're feeling better these days and think you've done a good thing in sharing your experience although I imagine the writing part may have been difficult. Hugs to you my friend!

Jacalyn @ rmebathproducts.com said...

Hi Pam! No tutorial is dumb sweetie! Especially for me, ha, because I am trying to learn all I can from you lovely talented women so I do appreciate it. And, there's nothing like vintage millinery, huh? Your baking looks faboulous too and I want a cookie! Look forwad to your next article!

Hugs,
Jacalyn

Mosaic Magpie said...

I need a tutorial on finding the cool hat.
Debbie

Lynn Stevens said...

Wish I could find some for 4 to 6 dollars!!! One thing I did last year was try and wash one. NOT a good idea. There is a special glue or should I say starch that keeps then together. When I tried to hand wash it, it became a gooey mess and fell apart. UGHHHHH. Lesson learned, never wash an old hat!

Terri Lee Takacs said...

Great minds REALLY do think alike! First we both made blueberry muffins the same week ~ I just made choc. chip banana bread a few days! The recipe was really a good one so am waiting for my next set of bananas to brown so I can make it again and take pics this time.I have a package on the way to you~~ it started with the beads and then kinda grew from there LOL!

Unknown said...

Try holding a section of the hat over steam for 10 seconds. It will warm up the glue enough to pull off the flowers

Related Posts with Thumbnails