The W&M Hat - Part 1

This is my newest project, the W&M Hat. A few of my friends have taken up knitting hats and we've convinced a few other to start scarves. We have a little knitting area in the computer lab - it's really cute.

This is my first time on circular needles and my first time knitting something that wasn't a rectangular piece. I hope it turns out alright.

The Felt Cavalier Hat - Master Post

The Felt Cavalier Hat - April 20, 2012
Finishing the Felt Cavalier Hat - April 27, 2012

The Buckram Cavalier Hat - Master Post

Flat Patterning the Cavalier Hat - February 10, 2012
The Buckram Foundation - February 27, 2012
The Crown - April 17, 2012
Crown and Brim - April 24, 2012
Trimming the Cavalier Hat - May 1, 2012

The Felt Hat - Master Post

The Felt Hat - March 23, 2012
Finishing the Edges - March 27, 2012
Tacking on Trim - March 31, 2012

The Millinery Tea Party

On Tuesday I had my Millinery class final. We brought in all four of our hats to be photographed and then we went out to tea.

This is me posing with all of my hats:

Of course, we had to wear one of our hats to tea. We were also suppose to dress to the hat. Here are two of my friends with their hats:

At tea:

This is what the hat looks like when it is on my head:

And of course, I was frequently told: Nice hat!

Mission Accomplished.

Trimming the Cavalier Hat

First off, I thought I had taken more pictures than this. There are no pictures for the in-between steps, only for the final project. I think I just wanted this done.

Here is the inside of the hat. To the left you can see the grosgrain ribbon that serves as the headband. I sewed that in and re-attached the comb to the back of the hat. That will hopefully prevent it from falling off my head.

I then wrapped a double faced satin ribbon from Jo-Ann once around the brim. I gathered up the feathers and glued them at the stem, like I did for the felt hat. Because the feathers were long enough for my taste, I didn't have to glue feathers together to make them longer. I did add in a bit of millinery wire.

While that was drying I wrapped wire around the bottom and then a bit of ribbon around that. I tacked that onto the left side of the hat with red thread.

I also made a cockade, which is a decoration made from ribbon. You usually see them on tricornes or bicornes. There were instructions on how to do it from the book From the Neck Up, but mine didn't look anything like it was meant to. The instructions were rather unclear on that regard.

That is a close-up on the cockade. It's blocking the ends of the feathers from sight.

It looks pretty although it doesn't look like a cockade.

This looks a lot more Spanish-influenced than I had thought when I was making it. I think I should stop calling it the Cavalier Hat and start calling it the Spanish Musketeer Hat.

But it is done. Finally.

On Friday I will be posting pictures from the class final and tea party.

Finishing the Felt Cavalier Hat

Another hat down!

Previously

The Cavalier Hat - Crown and Brim

I spent a good portion of the last week putting the brim together. I cut out two pieces of fabric to fit the brim, with a large amount of seam allowance. I basted one piece to the buckram and sewed along the outer wire edge to hold it in place. The seam allowance was folded over the wire.

I then laid the second piece on the other side and folded the seam allowance underneath the main body of fabric, next to the buckram. This created a fold at the wire edge so that the seam allowance couldn't be seen. I blind hem stitched this fold to the fabric folded over the wire edge to hold it in place.

When that was finally done, I used the machine to sew along the inner wire edge - where the crown goes. I cut out the fabric in the middle and clipped the seam allowance.

It turns out that the crown was somehow larger than the space provided for it on the brim, so backstitching the crown to the brim created a few bumps. Hopefully that should be covered by the ribbon.

I also cut out some lining and hope to get that done soon.

The Felt Cavalier Hat

This semester I am also making a felt cavalier hat in addition to the one made from buckram.

The felt body was ordered from ManHatCo, like the other felt hat and the straw body.

First, I soaked the felt body in warm but not hot water.

I stretched the felt over a regular hat form and a wooden 'donut'.

Another 'donut' went over the brim in order to hold it flat. I suspect I will have to re-wet the brim and weight it down with wood in order to get it to lie flat.

Hopefully this will be dry by Monday so I can continue working on the brim.

Working on the Buckram Hat - The Crown

So I have cut out and sewed together the fabric and the buckram for the crown of my cavalier hat. That bit was easy; I just had to baste stitch the fabric to the buckram and sew along the seam allowance with the machine.

Then I had to sew the top part of the hat, the tip, to the sideband. I did this by clipping the curve of the tip and folding the seam allowance perpendicular to the plane of the hat.

I then stitched the sideband to the seam allowance, carefully butting the edge of the sideband up against the inner edge of the seam allowance. This was done in backstitch and it took forever.

I don't have a picture, but this part is done now.

The Straw Hat

One of the four hats I have to make for my millinery class is a straw hat.

My inspiration for this was a hat hanging on the wall of my grandmother's house:

I ordered the straw body from ManHatCo, like the felt hat, but I didn't feel the need to pull it because I already liked the shape.

I first needed to make the lining so my hair wouldn't get caught on the straw. The lining was a piece of white fabric sewed into a tube about 8 inches tall and roughly the width of my hat around.

I put a drawstring in at one end and sewed the other edge to the end of the crown.

I then took a piece of shiny blue fabric about 4 inches wide and 30 inches long and ironed the edges down so that it appeared to be a ribbon 2 inches wide. This meant I didn't have to sew an edge because the raw edge was already turned back.

I then hand stitched the ribbon to the hat.

I made a bow out of white ribbon about 6 feet long and tacked that to the back of the hat, where the edges of the blue fabric meet. You can't see it here, but the ribbon ends are cut at a diagonal to prevent fraying.

I tacked a fake flower that I got at Hancock's on top of the loop to hide the other stitches. I also pulled the drawstring in the lining up and stitched the top of the lining to the top of the hat. Previously, it had only been attached by the brim.

Finally, I used what was left of the white ribbon to make ribbons to tie under the chin. Otherwise, the hat was likely to blow off my head.

From the back:

From the side:

From the inside:

And there you go! A straw hat perfect for Easter or a fancy outdoor event.