big o'l-hugemungous-ginormous- Gainsborough Hat
Hi all!
First of I wanted to thank you all for the many atta boys, you gave me for the last post. It was so nice of you all. I get so busy during the week, that although I read each of your responses, I wasn't able to comment back. The comments were greatly appreciated and I thank you for them.
The Gainsborough was inspired by the straw hat worn by Keira Knightly in "The Duchess". I despise working with straw though. You've got to soak it... it smells... it's wet and cold... and generally I find it unpleasant. I prefer good old double layer buckram, milliner's wire, cotton mull, and silk.
So to get the brim to turn like that, I wanted the crown to control the brims shape. I've made a hat that does this already so I just used that pattern and it's corresponding tip. The brim is obviously very large. and I assume circular. I say this because the center front of the hat seems to have the same distance from the crown as the center back.
I chose to use 2 patterns. Both of them are Lynn McMasters. The Universal Round Brim, and The Civil War Period Summer Hat. You can get them here: www.lynnmcmasters.com/patterns.html
I played around with how the hat would look first by layering a civil war summer hat that I had made and a flat straw hat.
It looked pretty good to me, except I wanted the brim larger. I chose to use a 22" brim.
I cut everything out of Buckram, Mull (cotton flannel) and silk, adding 1/2" seam allowances where needed. I did have to change the center hole in the brim so it would match up with the crown. This was easy enough, I just taped the brim for the Civil War Hat on top of the Universal, matching up the center points. I laid the buckram on top of the lot and traced the pattern down, and added the seam allowances. I used the buckram as the pattern for the mull and silk.
The good thing (and bad depending on your climate) is that buckram is malleable with steam. It's also sticky with steam. If you live in a place like I do were the humidity is always next to nothing than buckram can be used to your advantage. The mull will stick to buckram using your steam iron. This will save you the step of sew tacking the mull to the buckram. I attach the mull to the buckram, the silk to the whole lot (through all layers, hand tack the wire to all layers, and than assembled the hat. The crown center seam was glued together using tacky glue.... (Aleens?) with the mull already steamed in place. The overlapping section where the buckram was glued, the mull was trimmed away not only to get a clean glue, but also so that there wouldn't be a noticeably thicker place in that spot. the Crowns silk and mull were cut on the bias to get a good smooth fit over the buckram. The silk Crown's center back seam was sewn separately and than the silk was slid over the assembled buckram, and mull crown.
I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, specifically the tip and crown assembly. The tip was made as I had previously said. The buckram, mull and silk cut out with 1/2 seam allowances. I steamed down the mull and machine tacked the silk in place. At the 1/2 seam allowance I added a length of self bias cut piping filled with cotton crochet yarn from peaches and creme. I than turned the tip over and by hand, following the machine stitching I tacking down a length of millinery wire.
When I cut out the crowns buckram I only used seam allowance at the center back where it's glued to itself. The crown's mull and silk have seam allowance at all sides. When I steamed the mull to the buckram crown I trimmed the seam allowance off of it's edge that touches the tip. I than preceded as I had said, by gluing the buckram crown to itself. I snipped the seam allowances on the tip, bent the seam allowances round the millinery wire and hand sewed the tip to the buckram and mull crown. I sewed the silk crown together at center back and with an iron opened the back seam and turned down the seam allowance that touches the tip. I than hand sewed the silk crown to the tip, using the self piping to hide my stitches. The bottom edge of the crown has a length of millinery wire that is attached to the buckram and mull layers only. I did this buy lifting the silk out of the way and hand stitching the wire in place. the silk and mull seam allowances were than rolled down over the buckram's edge and whipped stitched to the wire.
The Brim was done in much the same way. the mull was steamed to the buckram on both sides. the silk was sewn to the buckram with a 1/4 seam allowance at the outside edge and the full 1/2 in at the inside edge. A piece of self bias was sewn to the outside edge, by machine, than turned and hand sewn to the other side (this at the full 1/2 seam allow. I'm proud of my handsewing so I used that side on the outside of my hat. I mean really... it took 4 eva. Before I sewed the binding by hand, I sewed down 2 lengths of milliners wire. The wire is thus hidden in the binding. The inside edge seam allowance was than clipped and folded up in prep for sewing to the crown.
The crown and brim are attached by hand matching all center points and sewed through all layers. The stitches are visible from the outside. This is ok, however, because the trim covers all the stitches.
I trimmed my Gainsborough with ribbon from The Ribbon Store :http://www.ribbonstore.com/ I used wired floral ribbon, most likely from the 50's and modern silk satin. The beautiful plumes are old as well. I got them from ebay. I wish I would have saved the seller... :( The hat is secured with a vintage hat pin from The Ribbon Store. The Buckram and millinery wire are from http://stores.ebay.com/White-Rabbit-Costume-Supply
and a link to the gowns dress diary:
http://community.livejournal.com/dressdiaries/516924.html
First of I wanted to thank you all for the many atta boys, you gave me for the last post. It was so nice of you all. I get so busy during the week, that although I read each of your responses, I wasn't able to comment back. The comments were greatly appreciated and I thank you for them.
The Gainsborough was inspired by the straw hat worn by Keira Knightly in "The Duchess". I despise working with straw though. You've got to soak it... it smells... it's wet and cold... and generally I find it unpleasant. I prefer good old double layer buckram, milliner's wire, cotton mull, and silk.
So to get the brim to turn like that, I wanted the crown to control the brims shape. I've made a hat that does this already so I just used that pattern and it's corresponding tip. The brim is obviously very large. and I assume circular. I say this because the center front of the hat seems to have the same distance from the crown as the center back.
I chose to use 2 patterns. Both of them are Lynn McMasters. The Universal Round Brim, and The Civil War Period Summer Hat. You can get them here: www.lynnmcmasters.com/patterns.html
I played around with how the hat would look first by layering a civil war summer hat that I had made and a flat straw hat.
It looked pretty good to me, except I wanted the brim larger. I chose to use a 22" brim.
I cut everything out of Buckram, Mull (cotton flannel) and silk, adding 1/2" seam allowances where needed. I did have to change the center hole in the brim so it would match up with the crown. This was easy enough, I just taped the brim for the Civil War Hat on top of the Universal, matching up the center points. I laid the buckram on top of the lot and traced the pattern down, and added the seam allowances. I used the buckram as the pattern for the mull and silk.
The good thing (and bad depending on your climate) is that buckram is malleable with steam. It's also sticky with steam. If you live in a place like I do were the humidity is always next to nothing than buckram can be used to your advantage. The mull will stick to buckram using your steam iron. This will save you the step of sew tacking the mull to the buckram. I attach the mull to the buckram, the silk to the whole lot (through all layers, hand tack the wire to all layers, and than assembled the hat. The crown center seam was glued together using tacky glue.... (Aleens?) with the mull already steamed in place. The overlapping section where the buckram was glued, the mull was trimmed away not only to get a clean glue, but also so that there wouldn't be a noticeably thicker place in that spot. the Crowns silk and mull were cut on the bias to get a good smooth fit over the buckram. The silk Crown's center back seam was sewn separately and than the silk was slid over the assembled buckram, and mull crown.
I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked, specifically the tip and crown assembly. The tip was made as I had previously said. The buckram, mull and silk cut out with 1/2 seam allowances. I steamed down the mull and machine tacked the silk in place. At the 1/2 seam allowance I added a length of self bias cut piping filled with cotton crochet yarn from peaches and creme. I than turned the tip over and by hand, following the machine stitching I tacking down a length of millinery wire.
When I cut out the crowns buckram I only used seam allowance at the center back where it's glued to itself. The crown's mull and silk have seam allowance at all sides. When I steamed the mull to the buckram crown I trimmed the seam allowance off of it's edge that touches the tip. I than preceded as I had said, by gluing the buckram crown to itself. I snipped the seam allowances on the tip, bent the seam allowances round the millinery wire and hand sewed the tip to the buckram and mull crown. I sewed the silk crown together at center back and with an iron opened the back seam and turned down the seam allowance that touches the tip. I than hand sewed the silk crown to the tip, using the self piping to hide my stitches. The bottom edge of the crown has a length of millinery wire that is attached to the buckram and mull layers only. I did this buy lifting the silk out of the way and hand stitching the wire in place. the silk and mull seam allowances were than rolled down over the buckram's edge and whipped stitched to the wire.
The Brim was done in much the same way. the mull was steamed to the buckram on both sides. the silk was sewn to the buckram with a 1/4 seam allowance at the outside edge and the full 1/2 in at the inside edge. A piece of self bias was sewn to the outside edge, by machine, than turned and hand sewn to the other side (this at the full 1/2 seam allow. I'm proud of my handsewing so I used that side on the outside of my hat. I mean really... it took 4 eva. Before I sewed the binding by hand, I sewed down 2 lengths of milliners wire. The wire is thus hidden in the binding. The inside edge seam allowance was than clipped and folded up in prep for sewing to the crown.
The crown and brim are attached by hand matching all center points and sewed through all layers. The stitches are visible from the outside. This is ok, however, because the trim covers all the stitches.
I trimmed my Gainsborough with ribbon from The Ribbon Store :http://www.ribbonstore.com/ I used wired floral ribbon, most likely from the 50's and modern silk satin. The beautiful plumes are old as well. I got them from ebay. I wish I would have saved the seller... :( The hat is secured with a vintage hat pin from The Ribbon Store. The Buckram and millinery wire are from http://stores.ebay.com/White-Rabbit-Costume-Supply
and a link to the gowns dress diary:
http://community.livejournal.com/dressdiaries/516924.html