DIY FRIDAY: Veiled Beanie

Jil Sander Veiled Beanie, $440
Curtesy of Totokaelo.com

So here is another fairly easy DIY! I followed the instructions given at Honestly...WTF.com, here, but as usual had to change a few things to suit me personally. For example I had to make the veil stick far out enough from the hat that it didn't snag on my glasses (and I had some issues getting the netting to lay just so...). 

Ever since I saw the movie, Anna Karinina, I've been OBSESSED with the idea of veils. The only problem is how to pull them off in a fashion-forward way that's relevant to current times. It is this woman's opinion that Jil Sander pulled this off spectacularly! This was a perfect DIY because, as I said before, it's pretty easy and it's a really good way to get a real bang for your buck! The Jil Sander beanie cost $440 (I died a little on the inside when I saw this. Talk about sticker shock!) but you can easily make this yourself for less than $30.

I bought all of my supplies online - click on the pics to go to the links - (that just goes to show how often I get out), but I happen to know JoAnn Fabrics carries Russian netting in stores and you can find a black beanie practically anywhere. I purchased BandsonSale's Long Knit Beanie Hat Black on Amazon for $4.09 (including shipping) which I thought was a pretty smashing good deal. It arrived very quickly and I was surprised to see how thick and soft the fabric was. The netting was quick too, I just had one (or two) issues with it. First, it arrived torn in a spot. Luckily, the netting is so wide that I ended up just using a little bit so I easily cropped out the hole. Second, when I opened the package I accidentally cut another hole in the netting. Now, I will admit that is my stupid mistake, but I would think they would maybe package fabric in a manner that decreased the odds of this happening (it was a shipping bag that was folded over). Anyway, the netting ended up doing all that it needed too, and I have lots of extra!

      

As far as the issues I encountered with this project, I had only one. I found that because I had to modify the original DIY instructions to suit my glasses, I had to sew the netting down in more places to keep it from sticking up in weird places. This, in turn, led to me having a lot of connected stitches on the inside of the beanie, and if you know anything about sewing you know (as I do now) that taut stitches and stretchy fabric do not mix. In plain language: the ability of my beanie to stretch over my head is severely restricted due to all the stitching I did. I does fit over my head...barely. So just as a head's up. Either find a way to use less stitches than I did, or after every stitch, knot it, cut the thread and begin again on the next stitch.

While I wouldn't say this is my favorite DIY project ever (it got me pretty... irritated a few times), overall I'm pretty happy with the result. You can see me wearing the hat below:

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