Bandeau Doll Hat Tutorial

I love the 1950s era fashion dolls like Cissy, Miss Revlon and Dollikins.

What I found early on was that their hats are nearly impossible to find.

SO, of course I figured out how to make doll hats myself.

One of my readers requested this tutorial and here we are!

This is NOT a necessity, but can be helpful if you think you 

might make hats on a regular basis.  I just used a cheap glass candle 

holder from the craft store and a Styrofoam egg about 4" tall.

I covered the egg with some batting and fabric and hot-glued it

into the candle holder.

VOILA! Hat stand!

Some things you'll need: 

I like using copper wire, but you can use

other types of wire you have on hand. 

It needs to be strong enough to hold it's shape!

You'll also need silk flowers around 1" or smaller.

Lace, feathers, berries and netting. 

I like to shop in the wedding aisle at the 

craft store for gems and pearls.

For this tutorial you'll definitely need some 5/8" gros-grain ribbon.

I also use wool felt sometimes (that will be another tutorial)

Cut a length of wire to around 7" for 19" - 20 " dolls.

You'll also need a hot-glue gun.

Cut a piece of ribbon a little longer than your wire.

Hot-glue the wire to the center of the ribbon.

Don't worry if it's not perfectly straight.

Bend your wired ribbon into an arc like this.

Make sure the wire is on top!

Trim the ribbon into points like this.

Pull off these leaf parts of your flower.

Than cut off the stem as close as you can.

You want this for your flowers.

Yes, your flowers will come apart like this sometimes.  

Just glue them back in layers.

You can see I've started out using the largest flowers first.

I space them out, I don't worry about being perfectly spaced.

Notice these gaps where you can see the wire?

These spaces all need to be filled in.

This is where you need your smaller flowers;

they act as fillers.

I tuck a smaller flower into each space I see.

When all your fillers are in place I add some little details.

The yellow seeds pull apart and look like this:

Just tuck them in with hot-glue into your flowers 

as an accent. I like to add them on the side.

Before I add netting I like to crumple it up in my hands.

It gives it a softer less rigid look.

You can see the yellow seeds here and I am experimenting

with how I want the net to look.

Let me just say, I don't always put net on Bandeau Hats.

It's really just an option.

Before I attach netting, I twist it and fold it over.

Then I hot-glue the netting underneath with the loose end hidden.

Pull the net loosely over the top of the Bandeau and 

attach the same way on the opposite underside.

As a last minute touch I added some pearl strands.

DONE!

HOW DOES OUR HAT LOOK??

Here is my favortite Model - CISSY!

For your inspiration,

Here are some other Bandeau Hats I have made.