Preston's Gladiator Hat

Every summer on Labor Day my family plays croquet wearing silly hats. It's now a major family tradition. For Preston's very first croquet tournament I decided he needed a really special hat. We could have gone the tradition route and bought something super cute, but apparently their isn't a huge market for silly hats for infants! I needed to make my own.

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.

It took me ALL day, but I think the result was well worth it!