Hat Magnets & Hat Pins: Change the Look of Your Hat in Seconds

     Hat pins used to be all the rage back when women wore dresses to the floor and flower-covered hats. Those hat pins were long straight pins with a decoration on one end and a cover for the sharp pin at the other. Hat pins are still around but are much different now. 

With a barb on one side, and a design on the other, the pin is worn on the hat by pushing the barb through the hat and securing it with a clamp-type hardware piece.

Hat pins really change the look of a hat but there's one problem: you have to push a metal piece through and actually tear a small hole in the hat! So, you go out and purchase that fifty dollar ball cap, or two hundred dollar cowboy hat, then come home and shove metal hardware through it. That's got to hurt! Forget poking holes in your favorite head wear; use a different technique to decorate hats.

Flat, square or button magnets offer you a solution to ruining your hats. You can change the look of nearly any hat in seconds without ever poking the first hole. Now you can make a single hat look like many! Since there are zillions of things that are magnetic, or can be made magnetic, there are no limits to the different designs you can create.

Craft stores offer a huge selection of things you can use to give your hat a make-over. Flat, wooden shapes can be painted and otherwise decorated. Glue a magnet to the back of the shape and position the shape on the outside of the hat. Now reach inside the hat with a second magnet and align it with the one on the outside. The two magnets work together to place the wooden shape anywhere on the hat.

Hardware stores feature many wrought-iron and other metal pieces that look great on a hat. These pieces can range from drawer pulls to ceiling fan pulls to hardware you screw onto furniture for decorative purposes. Other things you can stick on hats with magnets include artificial flowers, a large button, fake jewels, belt buckles, jewelry and more.

You don't absolutely have to use button or square magnets to change the look of a hat. With something like fake jewels, for example, you can use magnetic sheeting instead. The flat sheet of magnet can be cut into tiny pieces and affixed to the back of the jewels. A button or square magnet can be used on the inside to hold the jewels to the hat. Magnetic sheeting can also be used to make ribbon or cloth bands for the hat. Add the magnet to each end of the ribbon and you can stick the band to the hat in seconds.

It's fun to make your favorite hats look different from time to time and magnets make it a breeze! You can create a hat to go with most any outfit in a matter of seconds and never, ever damage the hat! Emma Salkill.