Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The Felt Hat - Finishing the Edges

Things I have learned in Millinery:
1) Steam is hot
2) Just because the Presser Foot looks like it's down doesn't mean the Presser Foot is actually down.

For finishing the felt hat, I started by turning the edges of the brim over by 1/2 inch and topstitching from the bottom. On that note, two layers of felt is very thick and hard to sew. Consequently, I started by messing up because the presser foot was not down, so I had to rip out those stitches.

The next time, I had the presser foot down so the stitches held together. However, because the felt was so thick, I couldn't pin it together. For the record, I had less trouble pinning and sewing together four layers of canvas.

So I stopped every few stitches to fold the next section of felt over. When I finished, the stitching was uneven because the felt would shift over the needle when I went to turn over the next section. So I ripped out all the stitches and tried again.

This time I stopped the needle in the felt every time I went to turn over the next section. The stitching was still uneven but it was better.

Then I went to look for some trimming. I settled on some gold cording attached to tape. I ripped out the thread attaching the cording to the tape, which was slow going, but I did not unravel the cording.

That cording still needs to be tacked on, by the way.

I then ironed the tape to use as the inside ribbon for my hat. It's not gros-grain, but I think it will work. I stitched the tape into my hat with the machine. Again's it's not even, but that bit will be covered by the cording, so that doesn't matter as much.

All that is left is the trimming. If I get enough time, this hat should be finished this week.

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