Making removable flowers for your hats and cowls

You know what's frustrating?  Making a flower for a hat and loving it enough to sew it onto the hat only to wish you could replace it later.  I have a lovely black hat that I sewed a turquoise flower onto and I love it, but the other day, I really wanted the flower to be pink. Really wanted it to be pink.  Short of making an entirely new hat or cutting the turquoise flower off, I really did not have an alternative.

Many designers have come up with different ways to make flowers removable.  Some attach flowers to alligator clips and clip them on.  This idea could work, except I don't like the way the alligator clip makes the flower sit on the hat.  I also worry that the flower could fall off too easily.  Not to mention how do you wash it?  By hand? Other designers have created flowers with a hole in the center of the flower that allows them to slip a button through it.  They attach the button to the hat and then flowers can be slipped on over the button.  I've browsed through many of those patterns, but never found one that allowed for the flexibility of the type of flower.

I set out to see if I could make the button idea work.  I like really big flowers, so I tried several different types and designs to see what would happen.  I think I made 6 or 7 flowers, none of which sat right when I completed them.  The hole I needed to leave for the giant button just was strange and I had to use a color that would work with every flower I might want to attach.  That's harder than you think.  Frustrated, I set the whole thing aside.

And then, one day, while I was sitting in traffic, I had an epiphany. I was going about this all the wrong way.  To truly make this work, I needed the flowers to be able to attach themselves to any crocheted hat.  The alligator clip would not work and a button through the middle would not work, but what if I combined the two ideas? What if I crocheted a short band on the back of the flower and attached a small button?  The band could go through the hat and attach to the button on the back of the flower.

Excited, I started working.  I made some basic flowers and on the back, I made the bands, keeping them short so that the flower would be snug against the hat. I attached a small button and grabbed one of my hats.  And then this happened:

My first flower with the new attachment!

(Why am I not wearing earrings?  Noted for next time!)

Do you see how pretty it looks?  Here are some other views:

The flower is slipped through the crossed DCs!  I practiced moving it around and it fit perfectly every time.

Here is what the flower looks like from behind:

Small flap with button on the back of the flower.

Here is another one I made!

I know.  The flower is ginormous!

To date, I've made 10 of these flowers with different patterns.  I just love them and I love how quickly they work up.  I could keep making them for the foreseeable future!

Would you like to try to make one yourself?  Stay tuned for the pattern coming soon!