Hat fixings

We seem to be on "Hat week" in the blogging world, which is kinda neat that we are all thinking along the same lines. Here it is too cold to do much else than stay in doors and make hat repairs in the evening. I had never heard the term "brass monkeys" before moving to the UK and now I use it all the time.

Aren't those feathers lush - the hat is part of my Christmas pressie, but I'll show you pics of it when I'm all glammed up. Right now I promised I would fill you in on hat fixings to round off my last post. 

Wearing a hat is all about feeling confident in it...and confidence comes best with comfort, which includes not worrying about it becoming askew.

We are back to the inside of the same hat as before - sorry!

So to hold hats on, I use a combination of tools:
Elastic: A length of hat elastic (fine and round) that is secured on both sides of the hat. This goes behind your ears and under the back of your hair, not under your chin. (chin ribbons are reserved for bonnets and chinese style sunhats.)
You want the elastic to be the same colour or darker than your hair for the best hideability. You can buy specially made elastic with prongs at both ends on ebay, or plain hat elastic by the roll does just as well, which you then just knot at both ends to fasten it. Haberdashery shops normally have it in black or white only. I am better off with black as white shows up too much.

Half a comb: for more stability on hats without much brim I often attach a comb at the front of the hat. You only want a little one, so that it doesn't muss your hair up too much, so I snap one in half and hand sew it upside down (so that it is right way up when the hat is also right way up) to the ribbon. You need to go over and over with the needle and cotton a few times to make it secure, as on the green hat above. This makes an amazing difference to the hat stay-on-a-bility when combined with the elastic, as the hat can't fall back because of the comb, and it can't fall forward because of the elastic. Sorted!
(By the way - not all chemists or even all Boots have them in the UK, I had to go to four before I found mine - what's that all about? I thought they were still staple hair tools?)

Hat pin: Hat pins are a lovely way to add a bit more interest to a hat and some security. To find out more I'm going to send you over to Solanah who has a lovely post about how to wear them here, and here about how to decorate them. I've never decorated one before so I might have to try that. I agree with her wholeheartedly about anchoring your hair down first with bobby pins, because besides holding the hat down, it also stops the hat being able to move and drag your hairstyle with it.

Let me know how you get on with your hat fixings, or if you have techniques of your own to share!

Shona x