Post the Thirteenth: Millinery Magnificence

 

  Last time--if you can remember back that far, goodness knows it was a struggle for me--the hat style and size were determined and all the pattern pieces cut out. To help shape things, the pattern uses a much thicker interfacing and a double-sided one at that. So, you know the score by now. Cut out all the pieces, including the layers of interfacing.

 

  As with every other time with the interfacing, it needs to be ironed to the fabric. Since this is double-sided, do yourself (and your ironing board) a favor and insert a sheet of parchment or wax paper between the interfacing and whatever you don't want micro-glued.

 

  Okay, now take the long strip and make our crown. Pin the edges together, inside out. Stay stitch, then check to make sure the fit is good (I apologize for not having a photo of a shot so ridiculous). Make sure the edges are folded open, not both folded to one side or the other. Then do a regular stitch to lock the whole thing into place. Flip right side out. Pin the freshly sewn edges down. Iron flat.

  Pin the freshly sewn edges down. Twin stitch the seam to hold everything in place.

  While doing all this manhandling, the fabric will most likely start to peel away from the interfacing. This basically won't matter once it's right side out. Which we're doing right now. If need be, smooth out the fabric, then stitch along the edge with the large notches. This will hold the fabric in place and make it easier to attach the top of the crown.

  I know, I know. This looks so ugly. Just hold on. Take the top crown piece, line up the darts. These will be the smaller darts on the opposite side of the crown. Pin. Sew. Trim. Congrats. We have a fez.

  

  Now that the crown is formed, check the fit again--this time to check the crown's height. The raw pattern is fairly high, so I grabbed a pencil and made pencil marks around the base to trim off so it'll sit better on the brim.

 

See, really does look like a fez.

 

  Since it got trimmed, I went back and restitched the base. Now fold back the top fabric and trim away the interface edging. Now it's ready to be attached to the brim. Speaking of... 

 

  Okay, so we've cut out two pieces of interfacing for the brim. We can iron the pieces together, sure, but the sheer amount of bending this thing is going to go through means it'll probably pop apart. You can probably guess the solution: whip stitching the pieces together. Not hard and despite the size not that time consuming. Basically just wrapping thread of whatever color around the edges and pulling just tight enough to hold the mess together. Don't worry. There will be plenty of time later to regret our choices.  

   In order for the hat to be shaped, it will need wire. While you can probably use any sort of flexible wire, I opted for actual hat wire since it's designed to take a beating and still hold.

  So, this part is tricky given the gonzo shape, but you have to mold the wire to the shape of the hat. For now, just roughly measure the amount of wire needed and secure one end of wire to the back of the hat with some thread wound enough times to hold it. Then shape it the best you can. If you have any flat pliers, now would be a good time for that.

If you require assistance holding any of this in place, please consult your local cat.

 

Aleene's Tacky Glue -- for when Elmer's Refined Adhesive just isn't enough.

 

  Once the shape is good to go, the ends have to be secured. They actually make little metal clips for just this thing, but I refuse to make this millinery thing a habit. Instead I just did the cheaper thing: wrap the ends in copious amounts of thread and daub the ends in craft glue.

   Secure the wire to the brim by whip stitching every few inches around the brim. Then whip stitch the entire perimeter of the brim. Yes, all of it.

 

Ok, now. Now is when you regret your choices.

 

  Yeah, that's about six hours of my life I'm not getting back, but now the brim can be shaped any which way and there won't be any weird disconnect between the wire and interfacing.

 

  Now to cover this thing! 

 

  Sandwich the wired brim between the fashion fabric and pin into place. Trim off excess fabric, but make sure it still covers up the interfacing. To finish this, I'm going to make bias tape and use it to trim the perimeter.

 

  I know. You can always just buy bias tape, but it's easy to make. Which is great in situations like this where you really want the trim to match the object. Just cut the length of fabric you need diagonal along the fabric. Then tri-fold the long sides toward each other so the edges meet in the middle. 

 

Specifically this is called double bias tape, but I'm going to be real with you here: I know single bias tape is a thing, but I've never seen it in an actual project.

  Give the whole thing a good press with an iron. There's actually a widget you can buy that does this folding for you, but honestly once you get going it's not really necessary. 

 

  

  Okay, so, starting in the back wrap the bias tape over the edges of the tasty brim sandwich and pin into place. This will be a lot of pins. All the pins. Also, if you have a thimble now would be the time to get it out. And if you don't have one, go get one. Plastic, metal, weird sticky pad--doesn't matter.

 

  Because shoving these pins through can be hard enough under normal circumstances. Here there are eight layers to this and weak, fleshy human thumbs can only take so much of a beating.

 

 

The completed planchette hat brim. 

 

  You can probably see some slits cut in the center. These little flaps will make the next step a little easier: attaching the crown to the brim. 

Do not attempt to check fit with pins still in hat though.

  So, yeah, let's do just that! Attach the crown to brim. Lengthen the cut slits in brim where needed. Stay stitch at first so you can test the fit before stitching it into place. 

 

  For a touch of professionalism, you can sew in a hat lining. These you can buy from any millinery shop and they clean things up very nicely. You can also insert a sweat band, if you like. I've opted not to here, since this is ultimately a costume hat and not necessarily something you'd wear for hours on end. 

 

  With the basic hat formed we can finally get to a really fun step. Curl the "ears" up. Curl the "nose" down. And 

voilà! Look at that! It actually looks like a hat.  

 

*poing!*

 

  Uggggh. Been dying to do that for the last ten steps.

   But what's a hat without some trim? Alright! This braided trim and gold buckle from the clearance section will do nicely. Wrap the braided strip around crown and sew every few inches to keep it from sliding around. 

 

  This is just tack sewing, so it doesn't have to be anything fancy so long as the thread matches the trim.

  Weave the buckle through to finish it off. Sew the ends of the strip to hold the buckle in place and tack sew one or two places inside the buckle itself. That seems strong enough to hold. Not actually planning to do cartwheels in this thing.

 

  Got to do the feather. Arguably the reason you're reading this entry. The go-to for these are ostrich feathers. There are, of course, several different types of ostrich feather but the two main types are drabs and plumes. "Drab" is for the shorter feathers that come from the body and "Plume" are the wing feathers. Drab is a some-what unfair name as the feathers are still quite lovely. They only pale in comparison to the plumes. 

Drab is a some-what unfair name as the feathers are still quite lovely. They only pale in comparison to the plumes. 
 

  There are several tutorials online on shaping, depending on what shape you're going for. In this case, they just need a gentle curve. Which is something that's done by gently bending a curve into it with your fingers. Just go in small increments. Also, you may have noticed in the picture above that I picked a feather that already had a nice curve going for it. That still wasn't floofy enough, so I curled another plume to match.

 

✧･ﾟShiny!✧･ﾟ 

 

 We will need something to anchor these feathers in place and for that we can use a bead cone. They come in all sorts of styles, but this filigreed gold one is really eye catching.

 

  Once the feathers are curled we can (gently) shove the quills into the bead cone and secure with some invisible thread. In addition, I added some smaller feathers for contrast. Believe these are rooster feathers? Anyway, secure it to the hat's crown on the opposite side of buckle. Mmm, sweet sweet visual interest.

 

  Aren't we forgetting something? Ha, right! That little coeurl ornament. Everything's dried. Gave it an ink wash (to weather it) and dry brushed a little more gold on top (to make it pop). A layer of clear top coat on the black "jewel" makes it fit in a bit better.

 

  Button inserted on the back is holding strong, so it's fairly easy to sew to the hat and add a little extra security to the thing.

  Last bit is to shape the crown. If this was a proper felt hat we would have done this much earlier and steamed it into shape. But it's not and so I didn't. Thanks to the thick interfacing it holds a form easily enough. Just punch and pinch the into shape.

  No, seriously. Punch it. It works and it's surprisingly cathartic.

  And there you have it. I know I've already used this photo, but it's good and I'm posting it one more time. One fantastic red mage hat!

Next time: In the homestretch now as I finish up the cape and mantle. Surely nothing could be worse than sewing that brim tape. ...Surely?

Material Directory

Hat lining: Judith M Millinery Supply House (www.judithm.com) 

Bead Cone: Etsy (FINDINGMORE)

Ostrich Feathers: Etsy (AAmerican Feathers) 

Rooster Feathers: Joann Fabrics Your Local Craft Store? These were ripped off a discount floral accessory

Trim & Buckle: Mood Fabrics 

Current background music: Mattia Prete. "Solar Approach ft. Alegros Gramma." Eruption EP.