PAINTED HATS

Manawatu Times, Volume LIII, Issue 6733, 9 October 1928, Page 11

PAINTED HATS

THE HOME WAY. Hand-painted hats, says a London correspondent, ate very fashionable this , season, ‘and are to be seen in all the best shops, but they are quite expensive to buy. A girl possessed of an' eye for colour . and the most rudimentary knowledge of painting can easily make one for herself at a cost of a very few shillings. Any cheap imitation panama or smooth-rush straw hat will serve the purpose, as all the surface of the straw is painted over, while an old real panama, that has been east: aside as too dirty .and discoloured to be worn again can be made to take on a new lease of life by this process. Unfortunately, cheap panama hats are very rarely a good shape; so if one of these is to be , painted the best plan is to cut down the brim' to the fashionable small cloche shape before painting it; then, when the paint has quite set, as a finishing touch, bind the cut edges with narrow ribbon, wich may be either gold or silver, or in a shade to match the colour of the hat.

Ordinary watercolours arc quite suitable for hat-painting, and it will be found advisable from motives of economy to use “students” in preference to '' artists ’ ’ colours, as tho latter arc five or six times more expensive.- First roughly sketch with a pencil the design you have chosen, which, may be sir/plc or elaborate according to your tasto and artistic capabilities; then paint: in thickly and evenly the'watercolours, and fill in the • background. Apply one more co3,t of varnish to render the hat impervious to rain.