Larry Hnetka Goes HMmmm

My friend always has a “theme” birthday party. This afternoon, I attended her “Mad Hatter’s Afternoon Tea Party.”

The invitation urged everyone to get into the spirit of the party. I immediately pooh-poohed the idea of just plopping any ready to wear hat on my head. No, I decided to make my own creation for this mad, afternoon soiree.

Now, I will confess, I can be a tad over-competitive but I think my feathered creation was the best of the hats at the party.

In researching the design for my hat, I came across the work of professional milliner, Jeanette Sendler.

Now let’s compare her work to mine in side by side shots of Ms. Sendler’s hat and my haute couture confection.

Click on the photos for larger views.

Seriously, is there any comparison?

I’ll even let you in on the secrets of how this creation came into being so you too can recreate this hat for yourself.

Follow these four easy steps and you’ll be wowing them on the street.

1. Go to a thrift store or scour your attic and find an appropriate lampshade.
2. Use a roll of duct tape on the inside to form a round cone so the hat sits on your head.
3. Go to your local Dollar Store and purchase feather boas.
4. Fire up your glue gun and paste these tickly feathers directly onto the lampshade.

Optional:

Ribbon: My sweating bald head against the duct tape lining caused the hat to slide off. Note the bit of ribbon attaching the hat. Brilliant solution, don’t you think?
Hat Pin: I went to my kitchen drawer and found a shish kabob skewer, rammed it through a foam chicken left over from Easter, and then added a few enhancements just to dress the hat pin up a tad.

Here’s a close up of the pin neatly cutting through the lamp shade and strategically placed towards the back of the hat.

Click on the photo for a startling close up view of the hat pin.

Of course the hat pin had no utilitarian purpose and was only decorative.

But it is touches like this that take haute couture to the next level. I’m mad, I know, but what fun I had.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 5:02:05 AM and is filed under HMmmm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.