Because we’re madly scrambling to get all our flights, tickets to festivals, camping gear and regular life bills paid, all our festival outfits are going to be HEAVILY DIY. I wish had $300 to spend on the hat of my dreams, but, I don’t. Our DIY started with a pretty cheap captain’s hat off of Amazon for $17. We removed the gray braid, the silver rivets, and the original black band.

Next, we dug into our box of ribbons, gems, paint and flowers. Ribbon is usually $1.50 for a spool, and we  used about a third of the spools. Paints were $1.97, and we glued on the flowers and the gems with a glue gun. We also sewed on beads, which were $1.98 for a mixed bag in similar colours. For the plastic brims we used duck tape that comes in hologram and gold glitter, with a few glue on gems to finish it off. For the “Mermaid Queen” inspired hat, we painted a base coat of white all over, then a layer of teal mermaid scales. Finally, a layer of hologram glitter paint on everything.

All in all, our hats cost about $25 to make, and 3 hours of our time.