DIY "SNAPBACKS"

So I have this thing for "snapbacks"/flat-billed hats.
But my wallet, well, her love for snapbacks isn't as deep.
She actually may or may not call them "setbacks" instead, considering they're usually $20-35, and can run up to even the $60-80 range. And that's just a lot of money... for a hat.

BUT ALAS.
The Dollar Tree sells hats. For $1.
Originally, I bought this cute pink one (cute being the color, the hat not-so-much.) The hat is more of a traditional ballcap, but the bill is completely *manipulatable (*blogger didn't spellcheck that, so I'm assuming that is a real word. Which. Color me surprised.)

My original plans were to write some fun word on it. Kind of in the spirit of:

Only not those words.
Because I'm not a mancub.

 And this is about how well that went:

just. what. I can't even.

And then I didn't know what to do to cover up this mess.  And then! I remembered! I had seen a cap with a lovely floral bill:

I mean, I'm not a Bulls fan, but still.

And fabric - fabric I had. Specifically, I realized that I had bought this neat floral pattern recently from Hobby Lobby on a whim, just because I liked it. It looked like it would do the trick for the project. Also, for those that are curious, I searched the name I found on the fabric, but couldn't find a link to provide for you. It also seems to be unavailable on the Hobby Lobby website - sorry!

I cut the fabric to 8.5 x 11 (a sheet of paper was the only real measuring tool I had handy...) and folded and hot-glued one edge.

 The fabric on my hat was actually going to be reverse from the Bulls hat because I had to cover the mess-up I had made. I started by gluing the folded edge I had made on the hat, on top of the bill.

After that, I slowly cut, folded under, and glued the sides. Because the hat is from Dollar Tree, I don't think the stitching on both sides is centered. I made the fabric touch the ends of the bill, and then followed as close to the stitching as possible.

One side down, creeping up the other.

The top was the hardest part because I seriously lack cutting and wedging skills (is that even what it's called? I don't even know the name, that's how much I suck at it.) And to be honest, I don't know that there was a real method to this part. I tucked and pulled and folded and glued until it looked right. If you really wanted to, you could probably pop off the button atop, but that would create more work for me (more work that I would probably mess up) so I didn't go that route.

Voila!

Afterwards, I thought it seemed a little naked, so I added a faux-pearl lining.  I mainly glued the edges, to make sure it was secure.

After some thought, and some texting consultation from two friends, I decided to do a double-line trim as opposed to just one. 

And there you have it! Hat One. 

You didn't really think I would do a tutorial for just one hat did you? I mean, they were a DOLLAR!

The second hat was much more in the spirit of my original ideas. When I went back to get another hat, they were out of the pink and mint colors I liked best, so I just went with black.

 Again, just bend the cap out.

Obviously a cheap frugal person, I used what I had handy, which was some white acryllic paint and metallic blue washable paint.

I was shooting for a kind of electric blue color to pop off the black.

I wanted a hat with a kind of 80s/90s electro feel. I settled on Blaze ITC font, and the word 'gnarly.' Yes, gnarly. Keep your eyes peeled, "mondo" and "tripendicular" coming to a hat near you soon.

I started to sketch out the letters. One of the biggest mistakes made is to start and write like normal, often running out of space and not being able to complete the word. Start at the beginning, then switch to the end, until you arrive at the middle. This allows you to adjust accordingly as you go.

If you plan on doing this, I would almost advise against a black hat because it will take a lot of layers to create a more flat/one-color image. On a light colored hat you could also probably use some kind of heat transfer to perfect the look, but that sounds more complicated than what it's worth to me.

I've actually done the latter DIY before, but on the mint/aqua-colored hat I talked about earlier. Using black paint on a colored hat turned out a lot better in my opinion.

So, overall, 3 hats for $3. WHOO.

xoxo e