I’ve always intended to try a bit of millinery, or at least hat alteration, so last week I finally took the plunge. I decided to start with something really simple, a 1872 summer hat from the Met’s collection: You can’t really get any simpler than that, right? I thought it would go nicely with the frills of my 1871 pink extravaganza afternoon ensemble. So I trotted off to an op shop and bought myself a decent straw hat.  It looked like this: Unfortunately I forgot to double-check my inspiration picture, so I got one with a wide braid instead of a narrow.  No matter, I could still make it work. First thing: take off that hideous raffia ribbon! Then I picked apart the braid at the bottom of the crown.  My inspiration hat has such a shallow crown that I could save the whole original brim and use it for another hat, and make the tiny brim of my inspiration hat from the bottom of the crown. Then I started sewing, turning my loose braid …