Back in the 40’s

A couple of weekends ago, we had a Decade party at church. I knew lots of people would be recent decades, the 70’s and 80’s are fun, but everyone will be doing it. So, I went for the 40’s mobster, because my dress was a little much for “everyday wear”. I had way too much fun researching the 40’s, the fashion, the hairstyles, and accessories. One thing I found were the little hats that women wore in their up-do.

As usual, I found a tutorial that said she used a plastic lid and covered it in fabric. She put an elastic band… but I wanted more of a clip. Anyways, I gathered my materials:

Cut out the size of “hat” I wanted, one larger circle of fabric and one the same size as the “hat”:

Then I used a hot glue gun to wrap the larger one around the plastic and tack it down. Then I placed the fabric circle the same size on top to cover up the bunching.

Next I proceeded to make a flower out of the bottoms of a pair of men’s pants (from when they were hemmed) by cutting 2 circles and then snipping 8ths around the outside (not all the way to the middle). Then the scary part (for me, a pyrophob) was to hold each section over a candle for just a few seconds to melt the edges. This only works if your fabric has some sort of acrylic/synthetic material in it. If it’s pure cotton… it will go up in smoke. Then I used a fun old button from my grandma’s collection for the center:

Then I added the flower and some other doo-dads (mainly other buttons) to the “hat”. There’s some tulle, a satin ribbon, a pin and a couple of buttons. I also changed the center button because the other one was a bit too big.

And in the hair:

Oh, and I watched a ton two youtube tutorials explaingin how to do 40’s hair. The barrel curl was my favorite. It’s similar to a victory roll. If you want more help, I like this one and I happen to think she’s adorable.

This… after a night of dancing.

Aren’t my parents cute too? They weren’t quite mobsters, but mom could pass for a Pan-Am stewardess from the 40’s (er… maybe 50’s… when was that show supposed to be anyways?) Anyways, it was fun and we had a good time dressing up.