It took me a while to decide what to make. I looked up silly hats, famous hats, costume hats, famous hat designers, etc. I finally came across this hat:
And I was hooked! I knew Preston needed to be a Gladiator; it would be silliness to the extreme.
I did some more searching for inspiration, and so that I could visualize a pattern. I found this image. Pay no attention to the creepy model.
Hurricane Irene came through, leaving us homebound on a Sunday, so it was the perfect day to make a hat! I took all sorts of measurements of Preston's head, made a model of the red-plume seam out of a hanger, and I made a pattern out of wrapping paper.
I bought gold fabric and red fluffy fabric, but so as not to waste the good stuff I made a mock-up out of some scrap. I was pretty satisfied after the first try. What can I say, I get things right. So then I jumped right in to the good stuff.