D.I.Y. Kentucky Derby Hats

Hey do you like crafts? And parties? And looking pretty?

Of course you do!
You know what you should do this weekend? You should make a hat to match your favorite sundress and come Saturday at 6:24EST you should put both on in honor of the 137th Run for the Roses!

What you’ll need:
— Your favorite sundress
— A straw hat
— Embroidery scissors
— A hot glue gun
— Wire ribbon
— Fabric flowers, flat-backed beads, faux fruit, etc etc etc
— A bottle of wine (optional)
— Your creative spirit

What you’ll do:
Buy an inexpensive straw hat that fits your head. Disregard any adornment that comes with it — you can take that all right off with embroidery scissors. Places like TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Target, WalMart, etc. are great sources for cheap straw hats that can be tampered with.

Put your favorite sundress in a tote bag and hit the craft store!

Select a spool of wire ribbon and fabric flowers and/or flat-backed beads, faux fruit, etc. etc. etc. that coordinates with your favorite sundress.

Buy a bottle of wine. (Optional)

Come home and pour a glass of wine. (Optional, but who are we trying to kid here?)

Lay out your hat, ribbon, and adornments, and plug in your hot glue gun. Put a sheet of paper under the glue gun to catch any drips that may leak out while it’s heating.

Remove any extraneous items from your hat, leaving a blank canvas on which to work your magic. The embroidery scissors will be helpful here, in that you can snip snip fine stitching without running too much risk of cutting through the hat.

Now that you have a naked hat on your hands, it’s time to conjure your creative spirit! (Light some incense, maybe? Put on some Stevie Nicks?) The first thing you’ll need to do is to run your ribbon ‘round the circumference of the hat to measure how much you’ll need; at this point you’ll also need to decide if you want your ribbon to end in a bow and tendrils. (You do. Yes, you do.) Cut the appropriate length of ribbon and drape it in place. We’re not yet ready for gluing, so hold off on that.

Next you’ll get your various adornments out and start playing around with placement. This is the funnest, most creativist part! If you’re using fabric flowers, pull the flowers off the plastic stems, which you can discard. Some fabric flowers come with leaves that you can also remove and might be pretty to tuck in and about the flowers. Up to you, totally!

Once you’ve decided on a design, you can go ahead and begin gluing things into place, starting with the ribbon. Be careful to only secure sections of the ribbon that will be covered by other items, otherwise the glue will come through the fabric and no one needs to see your glue showing. Once your ribbon is in place, start attaching the flowers or faux fruit or flat-backed beads or whatever you’re using to the hat. (Feel free to go a little wild with the glue here.) Let the whole shebang dry for about 15 minutes et voila! You’re a milliner now! Princess Beatrice is sure to be banging down your door any day.

Jolie Kerr has never met a crafting project or thematic event she didn’t love.