The
Fedora

I had no idea this hat image was so huge. A good thing if you really want to see the detail, seemingly larger than life. I love how you can see the nap on the felt. I practically want to pet this topper. Nice hat, nice hat, you're such a cute, little hat (said in voice used especially for adorable babies, puppies and kitties). Now don't back off if I tell you this chapeau is being advertised as gangster-style. It's hard to imagine an accessory as innocent-looking as this involved in any kind of criminal activity. Lifting a few packs of Wrigley's Spearmint gum is about evil as my mind can picture. Which brings me to the fedoras featured in Eugenia Kim's book, Saturday Night Hat: Quick, Easy Hatmaking for Downtown Girls, which I found at the Paper Source this past weekend. I was hoping to learn a thing or two about how to make a fedora. Instead she suggests you buy one pre-made and embellish it! I'm all for decorating one's hats, but a tome about millinery should be just about that, not fixing pretty ribbons to a chapeau from Target and calling it a day. I know making a low soft felt hat with length-wise crease in the crown is a bit tricky: you've got to make the upper part of the hat, the brim and stitch the two together. (You more experienced milliners can fill me in on this). My dream is to have an ocelet-print fedora just like the ones my friend Eia used to make and sell. The first step is to buy a hood from Manny's Millinery while I'm in New York City in a couple of weeks.