So, first proper entry. Slightly nervous... here goes.
I was searching the net the other day for cute hats with ears, which would be appropriate for the Autumn and Winter, which is approaching fast with September an arm's length away. I found lots of lovely designed but nothing which was exactly what I was looking for. So, I decided that it might be easier to make one myself from a hat which I already own.
This is the final result:
So, the hat is basically your average flap-eared winter hat. I spent a while with some nail scissors removing all the labels to get the effect I wanted. You can choose pretty much any type of hat you want for whatever look you want, this tutorial is more about the ears and attatching them.
1. Get a bra (yes I know that sounds weird but trust me on this one!). Okay, so A-cup was what I used here, but I recon anything up to C would work... depends what size ears you want but I'm not sure it matters. So, any underwired preferable un-padded plain bra. This one is a black under-wired slightly padded bra... and you can see how the shape and size worked here for reference. You can get really cheap ones in super-markets for instance M&S.
2. Cut off the straps and seperate the cups so you are left with two cups and their under-wires and no bits which are going to fray.
3. Get some fur. By this I do not mean real fur... I am so not into that stuff, but synthetic fur. In this shot from behind the hat you can see what sort of stuff I mean.
I recon a few good online sites to get this stuff http://www.alibaba.com/showroom/Synthetic_Fur.html and uhm... actually yeh... no idea. I got mine from the crafts and fabric dep. of a department store... I think that would work pretty much anywhere. John Lewis or something like that maybe?
4. Put the fur on the bra and pin it down and then snip round the edge. This way you don't end up totally guessing how much of the stuff you need. Also, once you have un-pinned it you can draw around it on some paper to make a nice template for making the second ear. Clever, no? Of course remember to flip the template before you pin it to the second bit of fur to get the mirror image.
5. Glue the fur down to the bra-cups. I used Uhu glue for this, as its pretty easy to apply, not too toxic, drys fairly quickly and isn't likely to unstick any time soon. It should take about 10 minutes to dry... maybe hold it together for the first minute or two to be safe.
6. Attatch the ears! Right, my sewing is apauling but I managed somehow to attatch them without many serious incidents, so don't be intimidated by a bit of sewing : ) Use an appropriate thread colour, I used white for obvious reasons. You should mark where you want the ears to be before you start sewing so they arn't lop-sided. When you do this mark 3 sewing points. The underwire bit of the bra should be forming the arch you can see from the front and the top of the cup should be acting as the base which touches the hat forming a kind of U-shape.
7.Sewing - Sew in three places as anchor points first, I suggest either end of the U and one place at the back. If afterwards it looks a little messy still feel free to go back and do some more sewing. Remember to tie off any ends so it doesn't come undone and use a medium-sized but VERY sharp needle to get through all the fluff.
8. Extras? After you have the basic ear shapes on the hat feel free to add anything you like! I personally added a little bit of extra-fluffy fur to the tips of the ears at the front made from two little snippets of mini-feather bower. I used Uhu to add that... Some other ideas are sequins, which you could sew or glue on. You could add different fabric of fur spots or stripes. You could even buy some cheap earring studs and accesorise your ears : ) Go mental.
So! There you have it! Any questions and feel free to email me at eva_sheep@hotmail.com or just comment on the blog. If you email me please use the title 'Re: Ear Hat' So I don't accidentaly delete it as spam, but hopefully no questions will need answering.
From E-Rax.
WARNING: May not be waterproof if you add certain acessories, for example, the fluffy ear-tips on my hat are not weather-resistant.
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