Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Hat Construction Footnotes

Well, as expected this project turned into a last minute dash, and about half way through I stopped having time to record what I was doing. However, I thought the hat construction process was pretty neat, so I'm posting what documentation I do have.

I started out by cutting out buckram pattern pieces and sewing the hat brim and hat tops into the correct shape:Next up, I hand-sewed millinery wire along all the edges of the hat to maintain its shape:I purchased baby blanket felt to interline the hat. I used a combination of stitching and spray-on craft glue to attach the wool to the buckram:Sadly, that's all the photos I have. The next step was to repeat the process for the interlining with my outer-layer fashion fabric. Once that was done, all the hat pieces were finally assembled (this is when it really started to look like a hat). The final steps were binding the edge of the brim, lining the hat, and decorating the lat. I chose ostrich feathers, pheasant feathers, and a blue taffeta bow. I'll have to get a photo taken at a better angle to really show off the hat, but here's the final product:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You look so authentic (which sounds weird, I know, but I mean it in a very good way). I'm enormously impressed. It's like, that must be exactly what people looked like flouncing around country retreats in those gowns. Nicely done!