Kentucky Derby Party | DIY Kentucky Derby Hat

Are you invited to a Kentucky Derby party and have to dress the party but don’t want to spend a lot on a hat you’ll wear once? Try this fun DIY and make your own Kentucky Derby Hat with a removable component so you don’t ruin your hat base!

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This year one of my besties turned 40 and we helped throw a Kentucky Derby themed “Run for the Rose” (the wine) since the party was being held ON derby day. I was provided copy for the invitation design that read “don your derby hat and bowties” encouraging guests to dress the part.

DIY wedding hair piece | spotofteadesigns.com

I knew I wanted to DIY my own one-time-wear Kentucky Derby hat and decided to call back the DIY floral technique I did for my wedding back in 2012.

DIY Kentucky Derby Hat Supplies:

Black hat base (found this one at Kohls)
White tulle
White satin fabric
Fabric scrap piece or ribbon
White Felt
Beads
Needle and Thread
Candle

If you look back to that post about my hairpiece, this technique is a fun one to make due to the candle aspect of the design! Yes satin style fabric curls when put near a heat source, like that of a candle flame, so it’s a fun way to create ruffled edges layered florals. Just make sure you’re safe in where you have your candle, like on top of a stovetop, and that you don’t actually burn the fabric.

The key to this is to cut different sized circles and to layer the pieces with circles of white tulle.

To bring in my party’s black/white/pink color palette a little more, I sewed in a few pink wood beads in the center.

To make this a temporary design, I used a pieces of black fabric around the brim and velcro to attach it together. White felt was used as a base to pin all the flowers on so it would stay up a little higher on the hat. This was then pinned to the hat.