Well, it ends up I am not sewing a Regency dress after all, but I have acquired some more projects for various ladies in Sense. In short, I have become a milliner. Apparently my great-great grandmother owned a hat shop, which makes me feel curiously connected to her.
Lady Middleton shall be wearing a Regency turban for the ball, which I shall certainly post pictures of!
I am making two lace morning caps. I have made some mock ups, and will soon be sharing a step-by-step post on the making of the real one. For this post, however, I am sharing my most exciting project:
Instructions:
1. The Base. Cut the hat, as shown.
Next, open the bias tape and cover the edges of the hat. Sew on.
A note on hat shape:
My straw hat was off the very stiff, flat variety. When I first put it on, I could tie it into proper shape but the ties then choked me. ; ) If you have a head form, you can steam it and reshape it, but alas I have no such thing. Since I just wanted the sides to curl in more, at some point it occurred to me that a clothes pin would do. I had it pinned like this for just over a week. Twice throughout that time I dampened the brim lightly with hot water. I found this to be quite successful.
Lady Middleton shall be wearing a Regency turban for the ball, which I shall certainly post pictures of!
I am making two lace morning caps. I have made some mock ups, and will soon be sharing a step-by-step post on the making of the real one. For this post, however, I am sharing my most exciting project:
Materials:
Straw hat
Double bias tape
88"-90" of two inch ribbon, OR four-inch-wide strip of fabric 88-90 inches long.
White cotton fabric, about 19.25 inches by 20.5 inches
Decorative trim, fake flowers, more ribbons, etc. if desired
1. The Base. Cut the hat, as shown.
2. For Lack of Ribbon.
If you're using ribbon for your ties, skip this step. If using a strip of fabric, turn both of the long edges over about 1/4 inch and iron. Fold the strip in half lengthwise and iron. Sew along the edge so that the strip is closed. N.B. I bought 1/4 yard of 44" wide fabric and cut out two four inch wide strips, followed these steps and then sewed their ends together.
Hem the short edges of the fabric. You should now have a strip of fabric about two inches wide by 88 inches long, with no raw edges showing.
3. The Ties.
Pin the strip of fabric onto the hat as shown. Sew to the hat. I just sewed along one long edge and both short edges and that was sturdy enough.
4. The Lining.
Take the white cotton fabric and pin it along the top of the bonnet (from just below one point to just past the other point), folding the raw edge under. Of course, you're attaching a square edge to a round edge, so closer to the points, a lot is folded under. (My fabric was thin enough to be slightly sheer, so you can notice in the second picture below how much is folded under.) Sew along that edge.
Run a gathering stitch along the fabric at the edge of the crown of the hat, as shown above. This just helps it sit more nicely inside the hat. (Your line of stitches should be a semicircle from edge to edge.)
As you can see in the picture above, this leaves rather a lot of excess material at the bottom of the hat. In the picture below, I pushed the fabric inside the hat so that it was basically flat against the inside of the crown. Then, I snipped off the piece that I am holding in the picture below.
After snipping that bit off, I turned the edge under, kind of in pleats, as you can see in the next two pictures.
Sew along this edge. The lining should now be fully attached.
5. The Fun Stuff.
To cover up any not-so-straight lining or bias tape stitches, I added a decorative trim all along the inside of the hat.
From this point, what you do with the bonnet is up to you! I chose to go with a simple bow made of the same material as my ties, as seen in the first picture, but you could add flowers, more ribbons, etc.
My straw hat was off the very stiff, flat variety. When I first put it on, I could tie it into proper shape but the ties then choked me. ; ) If you have a head form, you can steam it and reshape it, but alas I have no such thing. Since I just wanted the sides to curl in more, at some point it occurred to me that a clothes pin would do. I had it pinned like this for just over a week. Twice throughout that time I dampened the brim lightly with hot water. I found this to be quite successful.
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| Clothes pin: creative modern hat shaping technique! |
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| The effect of the clothes pin after a week or so. Before this the hat was completely flat, now it curves on its own. |
I really like those kinds of hats! Excellent work. That's cool that your great-grandma owned a hat shop!
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