Millinery: Christmas Millinery

I did a Google search for "Christmas Hat", and discovered that all there is for that search is Santa Hats.

Isn't that just sad?

So I'm going to do my part to fix that. This Christmas hat, finished today at 2 p.m. is a Daphne pattern, available from Judith M.

The fabric is dupioni silk, 60 inch wide on the bolt, and marked down to $8.60 a yard.

What a deal. I got two yard. Irresistible!

As you can best see in the third picture, the fabric is iridescent, and changes colors in the light.

The side band I ruched, using the green side of the fabric. I really like ruched effects, but I still have a lot to learn.

I cut the band double the width but didn't increase the length, which limited the ruching to mostly a pleated effect. I'm thinking of making a Jill in this fabric and ruching it too.

I already had the berries that I used for trim on this hat. I had gotten the berries for my pink hat project that I was working on last June.

I wound up not using them on the pink riding hat...and now I'm glad I didn't because the berries work much better on this hat.

The tip of the hat is the red side of the fabric, and the brim is red on both sided. I debated making the brim two colors, but decided the red fabric underscored the green ruching.
Here you can see how the fabric looks in a single light source, in this case a camera flash. I intend to make a matching scarf too, Joan is modeling a remnant piece at her neckline.

There just something wonderful about matching a hat and a scarf...it frames the face so well.
I wore the hat hot off the needle today to an Ultimate Divas hat fashion show. Ultimate Divas is a company started by a Christian African American woman who wishes to encourage Black women to be independent, educated, intelligent, and elegant. Some of the models were students from Texas Southern University, a black college here in Houston.

Between "sets", while the models changed, the Praise Dance team of a black church performed.

And just for the sake of eye candy, the models were escorted in one set by the Houston Men on Fire, the calendar model Houston firefighters. They sell their calendar to raise money for the Salvation Army Angel Tree project.

May I just say the firefighters looked...ahem....HOT?
Yes...They...Did. Very.

So it was a busy weekend. I worked, sewed, and we were invited to dinner to our neighbors. The wife Barbara is working on her Phd in Math at Rice University, and her husband Andrew travels a lot. They have an adorable one year old, and four of the biggest dogs you have ever seen in your life. Their son Joseph and the dogs are all well behaved and oh so happy to have people over! Barbara wanted to do a trial run on her Christmas dinner menu for her family, so we were treated to a salt encrusted beef item that was to die for, and a flourless chocolate cake.

Her family is in for a treat this year!

And finally after a couple of weeks of very low humidity plus cold weather plus heaters equal dry skin, I am delighted to look out the window and see all the Christmas lights on our street sparkling in the rain.

It's been a good weekend. And I'm still in a holiday mood!