Leafy green button hat.

The green button hat mid-blocking.

I am really enjoying using up some of my felt hat blanks that I've had hanging about for a while, as I have promised not to buy more new ones until I've used some of my stash up!  This felt hat was one of a pair of green hoods I bought ages ago with a vague idea of making something leafy. I started by blocking the base of the hat with the lighter green felt on my button block (I use this block all the time, it forms the base of this hat and these ones too. Not bad for a bargain from Ebay!) .  The darker green felt I also blocked on another block so I could use the off cuts to make the leaf decoration for this hat (more on that in a later post...).  There is quite a bit of felt left over if you are using a small, perching block rather than a full head size one, and I always keep the off cuts to use as decorations on other hats.  I used a leaf template from one of my many books to cut a selection of leaves from both of the green felts and painted sizing onto the wrong side of the leaves so that I could shape them a bit as when they were flat they were a bit lifeless.  By pleating the base of the leaf and then steaming and shaping them over my tailors ham they looked much better and more interesting.  I had lots of fun pinning the leaves on to the hat in various different configurations before deciding on the final position of the group. I then raided my huge stash of beads, sequins, Swarovski crystals and all things shiny to find some extra decorative sparkle. I think this would make a lovely hat to wear to a summery wedding (assuming we ever get a summer!)  and I am thinking about doing another hat in reds and golds as an autumnal companion to this one.

The cut out leaves.

The completed hat.

I added a few sparkles to  make the back more interesting

The leaves from the left side

From the right side