4 Easy Steps to the Most Beautiful Fall Garden Hat

Looking for an easy to make fall decor project or a wreath alternative? Want something to wow your family and guests? Well I have it for you, but first I would like to say it is so wonderful to be doing a Blog Hop dedicated to fall decorations today with a group of talented women I met at the Thistlewood Mastermind Community of Bloggers! Be sure to check out the blog of Mastermind of this group, KariAnne Wood! She has so many great ideas.  

If you are just joining me from Marieza’s blog “Home with Marieza” welcome! ~  so glad to have you here today!! If you haven’t come over from Marieza’s blog be sure to check out her project by clicking the link above.

So let’s get on with the project…

So you are here because you want to make a fabulous diy project to hang on your door and I have promised you something a little different… well how about a Fall Garden Hat? Doesn’t this just say “Welcome”? What if I told you, you could make this for under $15? Well you can so let’s get started.

Materials you will need:

I purchased all of the products at Michaels and I have linked all of the products in a “Shop the Post” at the bottom of the blog. All of the fall products were 40% off which was awesome and the hat, which was not on sale, I used a 30% off coupon for. So don’t forget your coupons!!! We all need to save money right?

• Straw hat
• 2.5″ wide ribbon
• Thin wire garland with acorns, pinecones and cream colored berries
• 3 large sunflowers and 5 leaves
• 1 small daisy
• glue gun and glue sticks

Step 1. Lay ribbon on hat and attach

I picked a 2 1/2″ wide ribbon for my hat so attaching it took some patience as it must lay flat. First I laid the ribbon on the hat and allowed for quite a bit of ribbon to fall off the back of the hat so that I could leave my options open for what length looked best.

Start in the middle of the front of the hat where the brim meets the crown and attach the ribbon. Start with the bottom of the ribbon and lay a thin line of glue about 3″ long along the edge of the ribbon. Press firmly to the hat and hold. Then stretch the ribbon upwards so that that section of ribbon is flat against the hat and apply a thin line of glue to the top edge of the ribbon and hold firmly against the hat. I worked from the bottom up because I wanted the ribbon to form a perfectly straight line where the crown of the hat meets the brim.

Repeat this procedure 3″ at a time always ensuring that the ribbon is laying as flat as possible and not puckering. I also glued the ribbon down all the way to the edge of the brim (see lower photo) because I knew I would be doing a lot of outdoor photography and if the wind picked up I did not want to be continually untangling the ribbon from the garland.

Step 2. Lay garland on hat and attach

Form the garland around the hat, where the crown meets the brim (ie the bottom of the ribbon). Make sure to end the garland approximately 2″ shorter than the ribbon tails. This creates interest by having the materials staggered in length. Ie, the ribbon is the longest and the garland is slightly shorter so that the tails of the ribbon can be viewed on their own.

Apply a thin line of glue about 3 inches long to the back of the garland and attach to the base of the ribbon. Continue on at 3 inch increments around the hat to the back.

Step 3. Attach sunflowers & leaves

Remove three sunflower heads from their stems. Choose one large sunflower and two smaller ones.

Remove five leaves of equal size from the stems. Pictured below are all of the flowers and leaves off of the bouquet, but you will only need 3 flowers and 5 leaves.

Place one leaf in between the two tails of ribbon and the two strands of garland. Place a medium amount of glue on the back of the leaf and press firmly into the brim of the hat.

Place two more leaves on either side of the first leaf and slightly above it. Place glue on the backs of the leaves and hold firmly against the brim until firmly attached. These leaves will be placed under the garland.

Repeat the instructions above by placing the 4th and 5th leaves, fanning out slightly wider than the last pair of leave to form a V shape. The leaves, however will be on top of the main part of the garland. Allow finer branches from the garland to overlap the leaves to create depth and interest.

Place one of the smaller sunflowers to the left of the center of the hat allowing room for the large sunflower to sit perfectly in the middle. Now place the other smaller sunflower on the right side of the hat.

Now securely glue the large sunflower in the center. I chose to place the large center sunflower last so that it’s petals would fall on top of the smaller ones on either side. I wanted the center sunflower to be the main attraction. Look at how full and graceful the back of this hat is!

Step 4. Attach front flower

One last step and it is so easy. Clip the wires off of the smaller daisy, apply glue to back and position about one inch to the right of center when looking at the front of the hat.

Lastly spread out the vines of the garland in whatever way is appealing to you. I decided to lay them on the brim of the hat and then flow out the back following the flow of the ribbon cascading off the back of the hat.

Picture time!!!

Now the time has arrived that we have all been waiting for – picture time!!! Find interesting spots to position the hat in your garden, on your door, on a fence, wherever your heart desires. I will let the photos do the talking.

This was such an easy and inexpensive project! I hope you give it a try and I am sure you will get all sorts of compliments!

If you are new to my blog, a lot of the photos are of my greenhouse. If you would like to read the story of the greenhouse click here. Or if you would like to see how I decorated it up for a fall outdoor dinner, click here.

Love this project and want to pin it to your pinterest board, well here is a pin for you!

Next up on the blog hop is Amy Sadler from “Amy Sadler Designs! She will start the hop off first thing Friday morning (September 24th)!

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