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Hats -- Mission Accomplished

I feel like I should send a big high five through the internet to the anonymous person who posted the DETAILED directions for how to make a hat.  It was great!  Here are some pictures:


Yes... the pattern making actually required these tools PLUS a compass (the kind with the sharp thing and a pencil, not the kind that indicates true North)...

Tom took the boys out to a movie and to run errands so I could really think my way through the process.


Here's a photo of the first brim in progress.  At this point I'm sewing MANY concentric circles around the brim to give it enough body to shape as I want it while I wear it.  Looks big, right?  Wait 'til you see this:


GOOD LORD!  That is a HUGE hat!  Tom said I looked like Daisy Buchanan from The Great Gatsby.  So true.  Okay... it IS awesome but completely impractical.  So, I trimmed the brim down, added a new binding edge, and voila...  I LOVE it!  Jackson said, "I like it, Mom, but aren't you going to spray paint it or something?"  Not this one, honey.  This one is perfect just like it is... but wait... there's more... I got so into the swing of the thing that I also made...





Obviously, after the entire process is over, I'm exhausted.  But, this experience is proof positive of the quote that started me on my road to JoAnn Fabrics to buy the supplies in the first place... the quote that pushed me past my fear of Pi (yes, C=2(pi)R was actually in the directions):

"And in the end we must act on faith, not that it will all work out as we want but that our best guess is good enough, that it will somehow lead us to a place of discovery, of new perspective, of a wider self."  

My discoveries include the following:
1.  I might have never understood HOW I ever passed Geometry, but I clearly understand the concepts.
2.  You really DO use that stuff in real life.
3.  When I was a kid and saw movies with milliners I always thought, "Now THEY are the trend setters.  THEY have skill.  I want to be like them."  It's true.  I LOVED to see them at work.  Now I know just how tough a job that is AND  I know I could do it if I found myself penniless in a job line and someone called out to hire one.
4.  Fear has never been a motivator for action or inaction for me.  As I contemplate the possibility that I may be throwing our family into upheaval so I can return to teaching I feel fear.  These hats are more proof that fear is irrelevant when the mission is GOOD.


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