Mollie Makes Kits - Make a Little Fascinator!

There is a new craft magazine on the market, Mollie Makes, from the UK. I found the first issue a few months ago at my favorite Memphis bookstore. But then I had trouble finding the second and third issues, and it was purely by luck that I found them. So, I decided to subscribe. It is a little expensive, to have it shipped from England, but well worth it! A new issue arrives in my mail box every month, and a small craft kit is included with each issue! Too cute.

Issue #4 had a kit which included 3 small pieces of felt, about 2' of cording, and 2 buttons. It was for making a necklace, but I decided I should make something quite different, a tiny fascinator!



The base for the hat is heavy cardboard (a little heaver than a cereal box, but not corrugated cardboard). I covered the top of the hat base with 1/2 of one of the felt pieces in the kit. The sides of the hat base are covered with a vintage tape I had in my stash.

The pieces of felt in the kit were kind of small, so I had to figure out how to make dimensional flowers from such small pieces. I tried it on scrap felt first. For flower #1 I thought maybe I could make a 'rose' by cutting the felt in a spiral, and running a gathering stitch along the inside spiral edge. The gathering stitch is about 1/4".



Flower #2 was cut from the same piece of felt I used to cover the top of the cardboard base, so I only had enough left for about a 3 1/2" circle. Snip the edges all around. Run a gathering thread around the middle, pull up the gathers, and fold the flower in half, kind of off-set.


Flower #3. Cut 2 strips of petal shapes. Run a gathering thread along the base, placing the stitches so each petal will fold in half at the base, giving the petals a slightly cupped shape.

Glue flowers to hat. I use Beacon Fabri-Tac for gluing fabric to fabric.

Back view of hat. I used the little buttons that came with the kit to decorate the back of the fascinator and to tie the elastic used to hold the hat in place. I poked holes in the sides of the hat and threaded the elastic through to the inside of the hat where it is held in place with a knot. I even used the 2' of cording to add an inch or so of macrame over the elastic band.