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How to Make a 1900s Hat

Women wore large, ornate hats at the beginning of the last century. Trim a large straw hat with tulle and flowers to recreate the look. Inexpensive, large straw hats are available at craft stores. They are sold as wall decorations, but they also make a good base for a costume hat. These hats are also great centerpieces for a ladies' luncheon. Especially if the centerpieces will be given away as a door prize.

Things You'll Need

  • Large straw hat
  • Silk hydrangeas
  • Wire cutters
  • Hot glue gun
  • 3 yards tulle fabric
  • Needle
  • Thread
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Instructions

    • 1

      Place the hat on a flat surface.

    • 2

      Cut the stem off a silk hydrangea. If the flower is large, cut off sections to make a flower that is 3 inches in diameter. Cut the sections off close to the point where the plastic stems join under the blossom. Save the sections you removed.

    • 3

      Hot glue the 3-inch flower to one side of the hat, at the point where the brim joins the crown.

    • 4

      Unfold the tulle and gather it lengthwise into a 6-inch band. Wrap the band around the brim of the hat and coil it up around the crown, so that the entire top of the hat is covered in a soft layer of tulle. The tulle can extend slightly beyond the edge of the brim. Make a few small stitches through the tulle and the hat to hold the tulle in place. You may cut off any excess tulle. The tulle will be covering the flower you glued on the hat, but you will be able to see it through the tulle.

    • 5

      Clip or pull single, tiny flowerets from the cut hydrangea or from another hydrangea blossom. Scatter them evenly over the tulle and glue them in place. Use about a dozen flowerets.

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