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When my son wore his hats out and about I’d get loads of people coming up to us asking where I got his hat from. I’d tell them I made them myself. One day someone remarked that I should sell them on Etsy. I hadn’t heard of it before. When I got home I had a look at what it was all about and opened an Etsy shop.
At first, I only sold kid-sized lion hats, which were very popular, but eventually, I got people wanting adult-sized ones. Mainly for fancy dress or cosplay events, dressing up as Heracles, The Cowardly Lion, Luna Lovegood or to wear one whilst going to see The Lion King. All sorts of reasons.
Things really took off when Henry Cavill wore one of my lion hats to run a charity marathon in.
During Covid, I was a bit bored. Being a single parent with only one child at home, I didn’t have a lot to do, so I made a lot of hats whilst watching various films. I was watching Superman and looked up the actor who, as you know, is a rather handsome chap.
On his Instagram I saw he regularly ran in a fundraising event for The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust and seemed to be a fan of silly headgear so I randomly sent him one. I popped a note with it saying something along the lines of “It’s a bit random but I’ve made you a hat. Feel free to keep it, give it away or use it to raise money for The Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, I’ll leave it up to you.” I didn’t add any contact details or anything.
A few weeks later it popped up on his head on his Instagram. By this time quite a lot of people in the crochet world recognised my hats so they tagged me in the post. It wasn’t intended to be a way to advertise them, I just thought Henry seemed a nice guy and it was something to do during the long, boring lockdown. I didn’t really expect it to actually get to him, never mind him wanting to keep it. That was in 2020. It has made a few more appearances on his social media over the years. Each time I get a flurry of orders, which is lovely.
I don’t really have a process as such. I don’t read or follow a pattern for any of my hats, so over the years they have naturally evolved. Each time I make one, I tweak it a bit, make little improvements, then I just sort of remember how I did it for the next one. Each hat is made up of 11 or more individual parts which I then sew on and stuff, piece by piece. I suppose it’s like sculpting things in yarn.
Occasionally I’ll have someone message me if I can make a raccoon, an alpaca or some random creature, or I’ll have an urge to make a raven or a unicorn . I look at a lot of photos of whichever creature I’m trying to make and just wing it from there.
The lion hat is definitely the most popular and holds a special place in my heart because my son used to wear his all the time, he loved it to bits. Now he’s 15 there is no way he’d be seen in such a thing, but I guess I owe my love of hat making to him as he came up with the idea.
The dragons are particularly fun to make because they can be made in lots of different themes. I’ve made a purple mushroom dragon, an aqua dragon, a coral dragon, amongst many more.
The possibilities are endless. People can choose whichever colours they wish. I love adding little twiddly bits like flowers, mushrooms and leaves to them. Half the fun is picking out the different textures and colours to fit .
I think I’ve made 14-15 different creatures. The most unusual was a colourful cow. The lady who commissioned it has a dairy farm where they make their own milkshakes and ice creams.
Recently I sent off a unicorn and a dragon to a lovely couple who are wearing them to their wedding! That’s next week, so I haven’t had any photos yet, but I can’t wait to see them.
Just for fun, I sent a black wolf to Jason Momoa. He got it but I’ve only seen a couple of photos and they’re not very good. Hopefully one day it might pop up again.
Making hats is what I absolutely adore doing. Seeing my customers wearing their hats is an amazing feeling. They all seem so happy in them. They do get a lot of attention. I made a golden lion and matching unicorn for myself and a friend to wear to watch the Coronation of King Charles. It was spectacular fun. Literally everyone walking by wanted a photo with us or to try on the hats. We had to keep taking them off so we could get through the crowds quicker.
I have recently started to teach people to crochet. I also do after school lessons. One of my 10-year-old students who couldn’t crochet a few months ago is now making her very own lion hat. Hopefully, I’ll be able to crochet for many years to come, but when the day comes when I can no longer crochet because of arthritis or bad eyesight, I’ll get my patterns written and published.
