While I'm doing tutorials, I realized I didn't post on my sorting hat fiasco from our Harry Potter Party. First of all, this was a last minute party set up and then I became obsessed with doing a sorting hat. Why, considering I hate to sew, I do not know. I just knew I had these old leather jackets that I'd gotten for free somewhere because they were damaged. I thought this would work great. So, I made a form from newspaper, cut out the leather...

Then I pinned the leather to kind of get an idea of how this would work. I thought it looked pretty good and so i started sewing up the back but then I had to cut out the front piece to accommodate the curve in the hat. There was probably a better way of doing that, but it worked out because it gave me a more defined brow area.

I then added the brim. I can't really give instructions on that because I was just guessing on how that's done.
I did the sewing by hand, which was no easy feat, but it still ended up being the easy part. The hard part was figuring out how to make it stay stiff enough to stand up. I tried starching it like there was no tomorrow, that didn't work. I tried stuffing it, but it was a fine balance trying to make it look wrinkled and old with stuffing inside.

Finally, I sewed some creases here and there, stuffed a little then just propped it up underneath with a CD spindle. It still wasn't what I wanted but after stressing over it, I through my hands up and it was fine.


Of course, it didn't fit my husband who I'd made it for, but it fit me. So, I didn't have sizing down either. Still, I feel it went pretty well for someone who was winging it the whole time.