I have always loved hats, however, genes gave me a six foot frame, with a small head leaving me to buy hats either in the children’s department or making alterations to an adult-sized baseball cap. Once altered, the head appeared even smaller. So I began decorating the caps with large silk flowers.
A year ago, some new friends saw me wearing one of my adorned hats and suggested I make them available to the public. Setting about to make the baseball-type caps, I began to notice what women wore most often. It appeared the straw hat or large floppy hat was a favorite adorned with various scarves, pins, etc. My thoughts turned to adjustable removable hat bands for a floppy, straw or Western Hat. Why not one in every color!
What shall i use?
Materials are a problem when you and your husband make your home in San Felipe, Baja, Mexico. It is a small tourist village of Curio shops filled with brightly colored hand-painted wares. No silk flowers! I discovered one woman, whose craft is making the large tissue paper flowers you see during Fiestas. I thought why not replace the silk flowers with tissue paper flowers? Carmen was more than delighted to make these flowers in a size suitable for a hat or cap.
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Now that I had my flower, I began to hunt for ribbon. Ribbon is not easily accessible either making it necessary to experiment with different types of materials. An avid sewer, my thoughts led to making cotton fabric ribbon strips that could be hand-crocheted into a hat band to wear on any type hat; i.e. floppy, straw, raffia, Western or Rock Star.
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What About That Baseball Cap?
Not wanting to let go of the original plan, I decided to use the same fabric ribbon strips by crocheting them into smaller bands, affix Velcro to band ends and hat, insert tissue paper flower and now I have a removable and interchangeable hat band for a baseball cap.