This is a tale of a girl and a hat. The girl in question is one very sweet coworker with a head made for wearing hats (seriously, she looks good in everything) and the hat that started it all was crafted from dove gray brushed wool felt by couture milliner Eugenia Kim. Once upon a time, the aforementioned girl happened upon said $300 fur-topped hat and in the blink of an eye, she had donned the beautiful creation, never to be the same again. She wore the hat for as long as she could, and when she finally had to take it off, she shed a single tear. Or maybe she just looked wistfully back at the hat as it stood there on the shelf, perky pom-a-bristling.
Having myself, at times, felt the frustratingly strong tug of unaffordable luxury goods, I remembered this tragic scene when I stumbled across a wool riding hat with a similar silhouette and a much more manageable price tag. Then I thought a thought that often pops into my head during my aspirational window-shopping sessions: why not use my creative wiles to affix a fur pompom to this budget beauty and DIY my way to a pretty close approximation of the Eugenia Kim?
And so two birds were killed with one stone: I made my charming friend a surprise birthday gift that perfectly suited her lovely head, and a new blog column was born! The DIY Discount will continue to feature homemade hacks on designer goods, so we can all craft our way to better wardrobes.
For this project, you’ll need the following:
• a gray fur pompom
• a wool riding cap/baseball hat
• needle and thread1. If you’re using the same type of bag charm fur pompom as I did, you’ll first want to snip off the elastic band attaching the keychain to the pom. Make sure you don’t accidentally trim off any of the fur.
2. Using a needle and matching thread, stitch the pompom to the top of the hat, making sure it’s nice and secure. Knot the thread on the underside of the hat and trim any excess thread.
3.Take pictures for your blog of you wearing the hat you made for your friend (I’m sure she won’t mind)!
Hat: DIYed from this // Jacket: Banana Republic (Sold out, similar) // Top: Banana Republic // Jeans: Old Navy // Bag: 3.1 Phillip Lim for Target (old) // Shoes: Sole Society (old, but I also love these) // Gloves: Target (old, similar)
