Sunday, June 5, 2011

reality bites

The costume guild has a 20th c. retro ice cream social coming up next weekend, and I decided to make a mid-30's outfit to wear to it.  The dress is coming along nicely, but finding a suitable hat has been a challenge.  I have a number late 30's hats already, but hat styles change drastically at this time, so nothing I have is really "right" for a dress from earlier in the decade.  Plus, I'm picky, and I really want something white, which makes the hunt even harder.

So brilliant me - I decide to make a hat!  I found this fun pattern on one of my favorite sewing blogs, Sewing Vintage.  It only took 2 hours to make, but sadly... reality is not nearly as charming as the picture.  *sigh*


Of course, this happens a lot when working from vintage patterns.  The reality of what the pattern looks like when made up is never as perfect as the idealized illustration.  I could try to shorten the crown so it isn't so puffy, but I doubt the little slit parts will ever stay neatly closed like you see in the original picture.  Maybe I just made the cuts come up too high or made the selvage too big thanks to the vague instructions.  If anything, I'll probably switch out the slit crown for the solid one in the second view from this pattern... or maybe I'll ditch it and try something else entirely.

It was still fun to try though, and I LOVE experimenting with hats, so it was a fun little project even if it wasn't a complete success.

8 comments:

Kendra said...

It has such potential -- to bad! I REALLY like the brim shape, so if nothing else I'd keep that and put a new crown on it.

Philomena said...

Maybe you could sew in little triangular stays of dark colored fabric under the slits? That way you can keep the crown's shape smooth and the slits at the same time, without having them gap?

Lorien said...

It seems like you should be able to just close up the slits to an inch or so above the ribbon by hand. Is the crown all one piece, or several pieces sewn together?

Lauren said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lauren said...

Aww... I'm sorry!
I agree with Kendra. The brim shape is very nice. Perhaps you could remove the crown and add strips with buttons like in view 4 here? Since it's just long rectangles you wouldn't need the pattern of course.
http://www.wearinghistorypatterns.com/products/Sporty-Toppers%252d-1930s-Hat-Pattern.html

It would probably be pretty easy to do and to adjust to the crown height you want, and since the fabric for your dress looks summery it would be cute :) I'm not sure if it's too sporty for the look you're going for, though.

If all else fails a ribbon in the hair is a good thing :)

Cathy Raymond said...

I think the brim, and the bow on the front, look great. If you could remove the existing crown pieces and put in a solid crown (about the same height as what you have now but without the gaping slits), I think the result would be just fine. Think about it.

Anonymous said...

I did this one as well but thought I must have just made a pigs ear of it when it turned out just like yours!

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