I love the steampunk aesthetic of layered leather, lace, and metal. I am also developing an unhealthy obsession with mini hats and fascinators, even though I rarely wear them because I don't often have an excuse to get that dolled up. I think they're all amazing works of art. Crafty bonus: they're pretty easy!. I learned how to make them from Bev Hale over at Otherwhen Oddities at Octopodicon in 2013. Bev's class used an 8 oz plastic cup and felt to make the hats, but here I'm using craft foam because it's what I happen to have at hand. If you don't happen to have all of these materials, get creative with what you have around. All of the dimensions for this project are directly proportional to the craft foam size I had, which was 5.5"x8". You can scale up or down as you need to.
You'll notice that I did not glue a single gear on it. Gears are totally steampunk, but steampunk is not always gears.
Difficulty: Beginner. This project will take 1-4 hours depending on drying times and how much stuff you put on the hat.
Supplies:
- Craft Foam, any color
- Scissors
- Glue. I'm using E-6000 and hot glue.
- Black paint. I used acrylic that I had lying around, but spray paint is preferable.
- Rub N Buff. I'm using the color Antique Gold
- Pen or pencil
- toothpick with the end cut off
- disposable palette: wax paper, aluminum foil, plastic container you no longer care about or want
- Ruler/protractor/compass/round object approx 5 inches in diameter
- Things to decorate the hat. I used ribbon, chain, and old jewelry bits on this one. You can also use tulle, lace, gears, bits of broken jewelry, interesting stuff in your junk drawer, beads, feathers, skulls, fuses, nuts, bolts, flowers... the possibilities are endless.
Cut a large circle from one piece of foam. I folded the foam in half and then freehanded a half circle. If you want a more precise circle, use a template like a lid or other circular item you have approximately 5 inches in diameter. This will be the brim of the hat. Put aside for now.
With another piece of foam if your pieces are small like mine or on the same if your pieces are larger, cut a rectangle that's 3 inches long by 8 inches wide. This will form the crown of the top hat. I folded the craft foam in half lengthwise, marked, used a ruler to connect my lines, and then cut out two equal pieces.
Cut a strip that is 1 inch by 2 inches and put aside. Cut several squares from the remaining foam. You want enough to cover the entire hat, and this number will vary widely depending on the size of your square. This hat took about 60 1 inch squares, or about 1 and a half sheets of the craft foam.
Take the 1"x3" rectangle, put glue on one half, and stick to the 3"x8" rectangle. This is going to add some stability to the seam as we form the 3"x8" into a tube. Put glue on the other half and press the edges of the 3x8 foam together. The small strip of foam should be on the inside of the hat. The seams should touch so that our stabilizer is invisible in the final product
You could skip this step and simply hot glue the edges together. I found trying to hold the edges together perfectly to be a pain in the butt and since the inside of the hat will never be seen, I went for stability and ease. Also, hot glue is hot.
Place the top of the hat on the brim, adjust until you're happy with the placement, and mark the edge with your pen or pencil. Put glue around the outside of the tube and place back on the brim along your marks. Press firmly, but not so firmly that the hat deforms, and let dry.
Glue the squares all over the hat in a random fashion. Bend the squares so that they fall over the top of the crown and over the brim. Overlap them so that you end up with a hat completely covered in little squares. You don't have to do below the brim as that won't be seen. Hot glue works best as it dries very quickly.
Paint the hat black. Spray paint is easy, fast, and usually doesn't leave many drips for beginners. (Captain Sensible here... Please do this outside and cover your surface with a tarp or paper before spraying, especially if you don't own the property where you're working.)
Put a dab of glue on a disposable surface (because it'll never be the same again) and dip a toothpick with the end cut off into it. Dot this into the corners of each of the squares for "rivets". You can continue to "rivet" all exposed edges. Use small dabs of glue because it gets gummy quickly and gets messy sooner than you'd think. I'm using E-6000 in this step, but just about any other glue would work fine here. Clean the toothpick frequently to keep the dots from growing on you.
One of the problems I encountered here was that I had a ton of little stringlets all over the hat while I was working. I thought it looked messy so I used the toothpick to pick up the small strings and removed as much of them as I could. I couldn't get all of them, but they're harder to notice in the final product. Work in small sections, remove strings, clean toothpick, re-dab glue on palette, and repeat. It'll keep the hat looking nicer in the long run.
Put a dab of Rub N Buff on a clear spot on your palette. Pick up a little bit of product on your finger, dab off on the palette, and them apply sparingly on the hat. Concentrate on the rivets and edges and then rub lightly over the center of the square. Add more product if you feel the squares aren't gold enough. Remember, it's easier to add product than it is to remove it. This will give the hat an antiqued look. (more product = less antique)
If you do end up with a big ole dab of Rub n Buff in a place where you don't want it, don't sweat it. The beauty of this mini top hat is that some squares or parts can be brighter than others and gives it a more organic look. Keep adding around and use less product in other places and it will come together nicely in the end.
Once you've got the hat antiqued to your liking, give the hat a little rub with a soft cloth once it's dry. It doesn't take very long on a porous surface, and this will help to bring out the shine.
You can call the hat done at this point if you want, but steampunk is a Victorian aesthetic, which is not known for its simplicity. Clothes had patterns and ruffles and lace going on at the same time, and the hats worn at the time had at least that many elements as well. If you're not happy with the way it looks, add more elements. As Bev said in class, "You've gone too far when you've got 3 dead animals on it." (one or two, on the other hand, is a sensible number for a hat)
I added a brown ribbon I also had from another class at Octopodicon, tied it into a bow and glued a link from a bracelet I haven't worn in years. Then I added silver chain along the bottom of the ribbon, connected it, and attached more chains in silver and black. I put a little earring stud on the front of the hat and then another bit of jewelry that I happened to find while I was digging for cool stuff to put on the hat. Since the tarnished metal blended in with the rest of the hat, I put a small ring of chain around the central medallion to set it off and painted a couple of the charms silver. In the end, I'm all for understated steampunk pieces. ;-)
There are several ways to attach the hat to your head, which really depends on the length and thickness of your hair. There is no bad option here, so go with whatever works best for you. You can glue or sew a comb, barrette (or two for stability), or headband to the underside of the hat. Here, I'm gluing (with E-6000) a barrette that had the plastic part break on me.
You're done! Put that bad boy on once the glue has dried and admire your work. Finished dimensions of this hat are 3" diameter at crown, 5" diameter at brim, and 3.5" tall
Tips:
- Remove the Rub n Buff from you with warm water, soap, and something like a nail brush or old toothbrush. The product recommends mineral oil (baby oil), but I've never had a problem with the trusty nail brush.
- Wear the hat to one side of your head instead of right at the top. Hats look better at a jaunty, flirty angle.
- I'm sure as we all know, hot glue is well, hot, so please be careful. Most of the times the burns don't blister, but it doesn't feel good when a glob of hot glue hits your skin. Trust me on this.
- E-6000 and Rub n Buff both are fume-y. Use in a well-ventilated area.
- Please don't use spray paint inside... it'll ruin your carpet.
- Don't have black spray paint or acrylic paint? I haven't used them, but tempera (poster paint) should do just fine. I don't recommend using oils because of the long drying time, and watercolors would take several coats to get an opaque look. If you're using paint, thin them with water so that it's not so thick and gel-like.
- Finger painting not your thing? You can use a dry brush (dab in Rub n Buff, brush off as much product as you can on the palette, and then apply to hat) which will give you a different but equally cool look. It may not shine up as much, though.
- Sculptor's secret: Step back and look at the hat from all angles. This will help you get a more balanced arrangement of stuff. Place an element, step back from it, look from a couple of different angles, and then glue.
Inspirations:
I was originally inspired by a youtube video on making a steampunk top hat out of craft foam. Check out old Victorian hats and the beautiful church hats worn by some southern ladies for more ideas on how to decorate your new hat.
I'd love to see what y'all come up with! Post them here, tag me on instagram or post them to facebook. I'm kitsune_crafts on all of them.
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