The Cat in the Hat

My current approach to felting is to make something for everyone I know: gray slippers for Matt, purple elf slippers for Madeline, a neckwarmer for Anne, sari silk mittens for my Mom. When if came time to make something for my dear friend Jesse Reid it was obvious what it would be, a gray rumply hat with bones and tufts of hair sticking out, with two teeth on the front sticking out right over his menacing eyes. Of course I collect teeth, but I discovered with chagrin that I don't have two matching fangs, and I didn't want him to look like a fool with mismatched fangs clearly from different beasts hanging over his face. Luckily, I remembered that Madeline had recently found a small feline skull, complete with fangs, on a walk in the woods just before she left for North Carolina. The next time I visited my parents, I asked if she had stashed in in their house, and just as I suspected, she had. I immediately began tugging at the fangs with pliers but they were really rooted in there. "Alice, that's disgusting!" my mom cried, "Why don't you just felt the whole thing in there?"
And thus the hat developed. The skull was pretty clean, but I still had some pesky lip residue attached. I soaked it in hydrogen peroxide (actually the next best thing I had available, which was hydrogen peroxide based mouthwash) and the skull came out nice and clean. Now, for the layout. This was my most ambitious project yet, felting with a resist and incorporating objects. Also, I'd already had some hat-making debacles...
I learned two key lessons from these: don't make a hat exclusively from a wool that's absurdly resistant to felting (some local Romney) and do not skimp on the wool. So with those lessons in mind, I set out constructing the skull hat. Of course, by the time I had laid out my first layer I was already through most of the beloved Corriedale that I had planned on getting three layers of. Knowing not to skimp, I made the second layer with the Romney and the third with some black and white Merino. Luckily, the skull was full of convenient nooks and crannies to lace wool through.
After the hat was staying together and I cut out the resist, I added a few tufts of Karukal locks. I usually like to slam pieces in the bathtub to full them down, but with the skull in there I had to carefully roll it around. I'm so glad it worked. Yesterday I was in a vintage store and tried on a bunch of hats with veils and feathers, feeling inspired to try my hand at that style of felting.