Marius Day 2: The HAT

I realized I promised a Giovanni update next but he's going to have to wait until Wednesday. This weekend was wildly productive. Went home to the 'rents' place and cranked out Marius' hat on Sunday. I stuck with the German 'starfish' hat here since you see it on a lot of the Empire boys in the Warhammer artwork. (The dude in the foreground on the right is sporting a smaller variety + coif). Marius himself is wearing something vaguely similar on the newer version of his miniature. The 'starfish' hat has always seemed so quintessentially 'Empire,' so I couldn't not do it. Marius' version, however, had to be special.































First off, I made it BIG. They typically vary in size but I felt our good Elector Count needed something big and fairly outrageous. Using the pattern given in German Accessories by Reconstructing History, I expanded it one and a half times larger until I had something huge enough. Made out of black wool melton, the various pieces were stitched together by hand (usually easiest with head-gear) until I got the following:

After practising my disdainful look for a few minutes, I realized the hat was profoundly lacking in decoration. This was fixed by an additional six hours of work and these embellishments on the crown:



















Nearly there! I'm going to add some yellow trim around the front panels (uggghmorehandsewing) but then! The feathers! Last week I ordered $75 worth of ostrich plumes from this outfit and they should be here later this week if the Useless Parcel Service sticks to the estimaed delivery date. I got a good variety of colours to coincide with the miniature - yellows, blacks, whites, blues, and purples. Enough to see what works and what doesn't. I can always use the leftovers for German stuff at a later date.

And lastly, the cat is still elusive except to the very observant: