Red Hatters Here We Come

Even though my 92-year-old grandmother isn't an actual member of the Red Hat Society, it doesn't mean she can't look like one.

We first heard about the Red Hats when I was on a lunch cruise with her a few years ago. We saw all these ladies dressed to the nines in purple dresses and gigantic red hats. We asked who they were, and they told us the story of the Red Hat Society, which is basically a society of women over 50 who get together to HAVE FUN. It's based on the poem poem Warning, by Jenny Joseph, which starts, "When I am an old woman I shall wear purple, With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me." (Read the whole poem here.)

Grandma and I were immediately enamored with the whole idea, and rushed out to buy red hats for ourselves. (I had to buy a pink hat, as women under 50 are relegated to pink and lavender.) We also bought scarves and pins and other paraphernalia. We toured around in those for the rest of my trip, to every restaurant and relative's house. We felt like celebrities!

For her birthday, I decided I should make her a purse to go with her hat. Here it is before felting.


And after:


(You can tell how much it shrunk in the wash by the size of the scissors for contrast.)

Now, my grandmother recently moved to assisted living, and in the process, lost her red hat. So when I gave her the purse, the first thing she did was this:



While she didn't actually wear it around like that, my brother and I thought it was hysterical and had to take a picture. The rest of the time, she used it as a regular purse. I'm going to make her a hat to match it so she can go around being her fantastic, silly self in grand style.