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Hatting (Or, We're All Mad Here)
Jul. 20th, 2010 01:24 amGot my buckram and feathers in the mail today, so of course I had to spend eight or so hours working on my hat for Sunday even if, at this rate, I shall have no dress to go with it!
Here it is!
Okay, well, not really. Obviously. I am not capable of making a hat in eight hours! This was just the pattern I managed to come up with after a couple hours of messing around with posterboard. It's silly-looking, but I mean, it's a 1780s hat. Of course it's silly-looking.
My buckram is nice and a good weight and smells like glue and I like the place I bought it from because they sent free swatches of all their buckram fabrics along with my order, which was very nice of them. The humidity's at about a zillion percent, so the buckram was weirdly sticky to work with - of course, everything is sticky and nasty! I hate this weather.
Used two layers of buckram for the hat, plus two wires in the edge of the brim. I'm not even going to pretend it's anything approaching millinery wire; I had some craft wire in the Stash, so I used that. It's lightweight, so I used two lines of it. Zigzagged (in an obnoxious highlighter color) on, because I like to live dangerously; every once in a while the needle would hit the wire, but I didn't break anything. (This time.)
Then I covered the buckram in fabric so the weave wouldn't show through, with scraps from my red linen (crinoline!) fabric. Supremely obnoxious. Can you imagine a hat in this color for real? Blind the masses! Also zigzagged on, because, what, do I look like I have ages to hand-sew something that's going to be covered in something else handsewn anyway? Thought not. (Also, kitty!)
Then I cut out the pink shantung (*cough*poly*cough* ...but we shall not speak of fiber content of the hat from now on!), basted the shantung pieces to the crown and top pieces, tacked the shantung down to the buckram on the under side, and sewed the top and the crown together. And that took forever. Seriously. (And mashed my poor fingers in the process. Between learning the acoustic guitar, bass guitar, regular hand-sewing, and hand-sewing through buckram...)
(Actually, today at work, I had to deal with large amounts of felt, and besides not being able to stand the texture of felt in general - the texture just gives me the CREEPS for some reason! - the rough spots on my fingers kept getting caught in the felt fibers, and that gave me the CREEPS even more. *shudder* Eventually, I had the brilliant idea, it being a costume shop and all, to wear gloves while working with the felt. Fixed everything! Also was wearing a purple turban at the time, because I made it and I loves it, and the gloves were coral-colored, so I looked like a loon. A possibly criminal loon who sews large pieces of felt. Hee.)
The grain of the fabric is slightly off on the top of the crown, and I'm not too impressed with my stitches here, but it's not like I'm going to redo them and make them smaller, so I should just shut up and let it roll. The color's pretty off with the flash...oh well, you get the idea. And yes, it looks lumpy and kind of stupid at the moment. I'm hoping once I put a couple feathers on, nobody will notice anything apart from Big Pink Hat With Feathers, Wow.
The feathers, by the way, are just drabs, not real plumes, because drabs are considerably cheaper than plumes! Should have got at least one plume. Oh well. These'll look all right. The pink feather is pink like WOAH though...it didn't look quite that pink on the site! It's especially WOAH considering the other two feathers are burgundy and white. Hah. Oh well. Gee, I'm worried about one feather being obnoxious? I think I need to take a step back and look at the whole outfit, hahaha!
Here it is!
Okay, well, not really. Obviously. I am not capable of making a hat in eight hours! This was just the pattern I managed to come up with after a couple hours of messing around with posterboard. It's silly-looking, but I mean, it's a 1780s hat. Of course it's silly-looking.
My buckram is nice and a good weight and smells like glue and I like the place I bought it from because they sent free swatches of all their buckram fabrics along with my order, which was very nice of them. The humidity's at about a zillion percent, so the buckram was weirdly sticky to work with - of course, everything is sticky and nasty! I hate this weather.
Used two layers of buckram for the hat, plus two wires in the edge of the brim. I'm not even going to pretend it's anything approaching millinery wire; I had some craft wire in the Stash, so I used that. It's lightweight, so I used two lines of it. Zigzagged (in an obnoxious highlighter color) on, because I like to live dangerously; every once in a while the needle would hit the wire, but I didn't break anything. (This time.)
Then I covered the buckram in fabric so the weave wouldn't show through, with scraps from my red linen (crinoline!) fabric. Supremely obnoxious. Can you imagine a hat in this color for real? Blind the masses! Also zigzagged on, because, what, do I look like I have ages to hand-sew something that's going to be covered in something else handsewn anyway? Thought not. (Also, kitty!)
Then I cut out the pink shantung (*cough*poly*cough* ...but we shall not speak of fiber content of the hat from now on!), basted the shantung pieces to the crown and top pieces, tacked the shantung down to the buckram on the under side, and sewed the top and the crown together. And that took forever. Seriously. (And mashed my poor fingers in the process. Between learning the acoustic guitar, bass guitar, regular hand-sewing, and hand-sewing through buckram...)
(Actually, today at work, I had to deal with large amounts of felt, and besides not being able to stand the texture of felt in general - the texture just gives me the CREEPS for some reason! - the rough spots on my fingers kept getting caught in the felt fibers, and that gave me the CREEPS even more. *shudder* Eventually, I had the brilliant idea, it being a costume shop and all, to wear gloves while working with the felt. Fixed everything! Also was wearing a purple turban at the time, because I made it and I loves it, and the gloves were coral-colored, so I looked like a loon. A possibly criminal loon who sews large pieces of felt. Hee.)
The grain of the fabric is slightly off on the top of the crown, and I'm not too impressed with my stitches here, but it's not like I'm going to redo them and make them smaller, so I should just shut up and let it roll. The color's pretty off with the flash...oh well, you get the idea. And yes, it looks lumpy and kind of stupid at the moment. I'm hoping once I put a couple feathers on, nobody will notice anything apart from Big Pink Hat With Feathers, Wow.
The feathers, by the way, are just drabs, not real plumes, because drabs are considerably cheaper than plumes! Should have got at least one plume. Oh well. These'll look all right. The pink feather is pink like WOAH though...it didn't look quite that pink on the site! It's especially WOAH considering the other two feathers are burgundy and white. Hah. Oh well. Gee, I'm worried about one feather being obnoxious? I think I need to take a step back and look at the whole outfit, hahaha!
