Steampunk Mad Hatter Hat

So my decent into madness continues with my latest creation. If Steampunk and Alice in Wonderland ever crossed paths (some say AIW is already steampunk) this is what I would envision the Mad Hatters famous hat would look like. I'm pretty sure it wasn't the mercury this time that has caused me to go mad after this project. About 2 weeks or so worth of work in the making and around $60 to $70 dollars total in materials.

The hat itself is ENTIRELY scratch made by me. This is the third top hat I have made and at this point I have become pretty proficient at making them. The body is the thickest interfacing I could find covered in maroon velvet. Putting the pieces together is tricky as many of the angles will not fit on a sewing machine so the brim and lid had to be sew on by hand.

Although you can't see, it is gold satin lined with a brown faux leather sweat band. The hatband and bow is made from extremely thin sheet brass screwed to the hat itself...PAIN IN THE ASS!!! but looks very cool. Can't say I have ever seen anyone make a hatband out of brass yet.....but probably will after this. Just a FYI its EXTREMELY difficult and tends to be alil expensive. The lid of the hat, as you can see, has a trap door which open via a sliding knob attached to a scissor mechanism I designed inside the hat. By sliding the knob up and down it raises and lowers an actual period Victorian tea cup. The cup is magnetized to the mechanisms base plate so it stays in place when the hat is worn, yet still removable when lets say, its time for tea.

I finished the inside of the hat lid off with a period wooden spool of cotton thread, 2x large vintage needles and my actual great grandmothers sewing scissors....obviously for display purposes only. I figured if the Mad Hatter were living in the Steampunk universe then his hat would be kinda like a Swiss Army knife. Let me know what you people out there in DA world think The rest of this costume is to come and in the works!