Season Two - Episode 2: "Building with Big Brims! Pt - 1"

"Ship's Log, Stardate 94070.06:
This week, a pretty intense thunderstorm blew through...

My totally-not-scared-at-all dogs came in to make sure I was safe.

"We'll just hang out in here with you for a while..."

So I spent some time indoors working on that bicorn!

And going through my Ipsy Glam Bag!

I love this month's bag design! I was a little more excited than usual about this month's bag. The featured item, an Urban Decay eyeshadow, came in orangy-pink "Fireball" or a chocolate-green "Lounge", and I reaaally wanted Lounge. I got it! It reminds me of LA Splash "Catrina" and Marsk "Mudcake", a matte lipstick and a mineral powder, that I wore here. 

Iridescent green over chocolate or mahogany is my new fav color!  I'm not super into bright nail polish, but the tiny bottle is cute and I might like this formula enough to get it in black or brown. The liptini is a little... Barbie-pale-pink for me. I thought I would hate the cool toned highlighter, but as a blush, it's super cute, and the everything balm really works on everything, (even my unruly brows and dry lips).

Enough subscription! On to my hat project!

This is the goal - an epic bicorn a la Alice and the Pirate's Majestic Pirate Hat.

And here is the progress!

Black Ultrabraid, from Amazon.com

First, I grabbed the biggest black straw hat I could find.  Normally I wouldn't think to use that material over say, wool, but it's what the AatP hat is using, and that is the style I want to emulate.  I used a razor to remove the original hat band, and sewed my own, out of black braid, instead.

The lace is from Michaels, and is leftover from my last hat project.

I hand sewed lace around the edge of the underside of the brim.  At first I had it too far from the edge and disliked it - I hate having to seam rip something apart when I'm halfway done!

Much closer to the edge now.

I measured (to keep it even on both sides) the four places on the brim that I wanted to have come together and connect...

Shhhhhuuunk!

...and used some upholstery thread to pull them tight and secure them in place (this style is easier to reach inside to change the decorations without opening up the hat, so I did not use ties like I did with the tricorn).  These stitches will stay in place unless I significantly change the hat.

Leftover this and that!

I will use black feathers, burgundy maribou, and all kinds of trim to decorate it with, but I wanted some sort of statement piece, and above is what I came up with.  I wanted to go with mostly black, and a little bronze or pewter, so it doesn't clash too much with gold and silver.

To be continued... I will be putting a little more work into it.

That's all for now! I am going to finish this hat and put together another ouji coord with it and a dark makeup look using that new eye shadow. 

Bear signing off!  Goodnight!"

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