Steampunk Top Hat

I did a steampunk Alice cosplay for Archipelacon, and tried my hand at making a top hat. It could be better, but I think it turned out ok. The base is one of those angular Lush gift boxes, and the brim I cut out from an old shoe box. I stapled the whole thing together with the fabric, finished the inside with duct tape, and attached it to a headband so it'll stay put. I'm not sure what Grandma would say about my using her antique hat pins for cosplay, but they work, don't they?

Every side is a bit different, to keep things interesting. For the Alice in Wonderland touches I added a Drink Me bottle, a raven charm and black feathers, hatpins, and the 10/6 note. I googled this, and apparently it's the price of the hat, because the Mad Hatter wants to sell it for half a guinea, which is ten shillings and sixpence. This made it quite an expensive piece of headwear, although mine actually cost me nothing as I made it from stuff I had lying around the house.

To finish, here's my favourite poem from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Jabberwocky

BY LEWIS CARROLL

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

      And the mome raths outgrabe. 

“Beware the Jabberwock, my son! 

      The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! 

Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun 

      The frumious Bandersnatch!” 

He took his vorpal sword in hand; 

      Long time the manxome foe he sought— 

So rested he by the Tumtum tree 

      And stood awhile in thought. 

And, as in uffish thought he stood, 

      The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, 

Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, 

      And burbled as it came! 

One, two! One, two! And through and through 

      The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! 

He left it dead, and with its head 

      He went galumphing back. 

“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock? 

      Come to my arms, my beamish boy! 

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!” 

      He chortled in his joy. 

’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

      And the mome raths outgrabe.

Internet source http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171647

P.S. Why is a raven like a writing-desk?