More Hats

The Etsy shop is still a work in progress and unfortunately the name Over the Top is already taken.  I have been tossing around the names Tip Top and Whimsy. 

I managed to get 7 hats made during the month of November.  I have a couple that I can put on Etsy when we are ready to list them and several Christmas hats made for the children.  I have been timing how long it takes me to make a hat and I am surprised (and not in a good way LOL) at the number of hours I spend.  A baby hat takes over 5-6 hours, a child's hat takes about 7-8 hours, and an adult hat 10 plus hours.  It takes even longer if I decide to tear out the stitching because it isn't looking the way I had imagined.  The more yarn variety I use, the longer it takes me to weave in the ends.  I usually spend over an hour just with a tapestry needle making all the ends secure.  Minimum wage plus materials puts the hats in the 50-80 dollar range.  Yikes!  I would never pay that much for a hat LOL!

I am not very happy with these photographs.  I have not been in a photography mood as of late so I wasn't feeling especially creative when I took them and I was in a hurry.  I am having a hard time getting the "true" colors to translate into a picture format.  I took these today to contrast the sunny day pictures that I took last time so I can get an idea of how the colors work in different lighting.  I decided to use all my officially finished hats in the "photo shoot" since they come in such an array of colors to play with.


This hat has taught me the importance of having one picture to list where someone is actually wearing the hat.  The shape looks a bit odd just posed.  I am also seeing that the neutral and bright colors in the hat don't photograph very well together.  The brown is much darker and richer in real life. Red is the trickiest color to capture accurately.


 

 This hat has been a bit of a frustration.  I have 13 and a half hours into it and it seems like lots of things haven't worked out the way I had hoped.  It is an adult medium or large hat (a little too big for me) so it ended up stretching quite a bit and I am not sure why.  I had to tear out the entire top of the hat and remake it because I didn't like the shape.  The posies at the top were suppose to be the highlight but they are not as showy as I had imagined.




This hat was a bit of a risk. I wasn't paying close attention when I begin the rounds after the band section and it begun to lie almost flat on top of the band instead of curving.  It was either rip it out and try again or keep going and hope that it would buckle and give a round wrinkled appearance.  I am glad that I kept going because it did end up shaping the way I wanted and I think it is my favorite so far.  I love the colors and the curly cues at the top and the bright blue beads in band.  I think the style is perfect for people who have a narrow face.  Plus, I think the pictures turned out the best and showcased the hat and colors in true likeness. 

 The picture on the right is my favorite of the all the pictures in terms of art and style...just what I am looking for colorwise, quarkywise.  This is my "wedding cake" hat and a good example of how you can decorate a hat whose shape wasn't great with embellishments and fuzzy yarn. 


 The elfish hat, another good example of how it needs to be showcased on someone's head to appreciate the shape.
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