Edwardian Hat Tutorial...
The Lovely and talented Tara Maginnis, creator of the Costume Manifesto, has a wonderful hat pattern on her site that is for an Edwardian hat out of Buckram.=
I have used her pattern many times. I have even modified her pattern to make a Victorian small crown hat. Her instructions are easy to follow and once you have made it you and know the fundamentals you can pretty much make any hat.
I admit I forgot a crucial step whilst making my newest hat and I'm hoping that it doesn't affect the final product. (I will of course tell you which step I missed and inform you how to do the step.)
So this will be a two part Tutorial the first part is how to make the buckram frame. (My way... I don't quite follow all the instructions but you'll see where I differ slightly)
* I HIGHLY recommend using at least a size 14 or 16 needle as I hit the wire at least a dozen times while making my hat and if I had had a thinner needle on my machine it would have snapped. ALSO! I wear regular glasses all the time so I don't feel the need to wear safety goggles but if I didn't wear glasses I would highly recommend them. I have had needles break and pop at me. In fact I had a scratch on my face once from a broken needle flying at my face.
First off, You will need:
The instructions and the pattern that you will increase. (Its really easy I promise.)
A LOT of thread to match the color of the buckram and the color of the fabric.
A lot of wire a minimum of 8 yards of heavy wire (I use 16 gauge jewelry wire)
a yard stick
a measuring tape
HEAVY Buckram (If you can't find heavy buckram you can use the regular and double it up which is what I have done for me.)
Fabric to cover the frame
Pin cushion and pins
Wire cutter
Pinking sheers (if you are using silk this is really important since it frays easily)
Regular scissor and paper scissor
(Optional) Chocolate for when your patience run thin. ;)
The essentials.
You will need to take the pattern and draw it out on some paper. This is actually pretty easy...
take the pattern and count the square in each piece, one square equals one inch. (that is how I did it... but now that I look at the pattern again I see that it is actually 1/4" = 1") But I actually did it 1 square = 1"
So the Buckram frame measures out like this:
Once you get the measurements you can then transfer these to a large sheet so that you can cut it out as your pattern. Like this:
This is how my pattern came out and I am very pleased with the size of both the crown and the brim.
So now that the pattern is traced off you need to cut it out and then cut out your buckram.
I use two layers of buckram because its not heavy buckram. I used about 2 1/2 yards of buckram. (I had originally four yards so its hard to say exactly how much. :D)
Everyone should be comfortable with pinning and cutting out patterns so I will skip this part for length sake. :D
Ok, so the step I accidentally skipped was this:
"B. Cut slash in buckram hat brim and overlap by 1 1/2". Zigzag by machine or whipstitch edges of overlap together by hand, as shown.C. Reinforce buckram as shown by zigzagging hat wire to buckram pieces. On crown top and brim make sure the wire of the rings overlaps at least 2" at the joint. Put wires on the underside of brim."
I didn't remember to do this but I am only putting one layer of Silk on top of it so hopefully it won't be too big of a problem.
How to sew the wire in: Excuse the music please. The radio was on. :D My machine sounds horrible but it is actually kind of hard to sew with a camera in your hand. I wanted everyone to get how you sew the wire on. You actually sew over it and sort of in case it in thread.
SO this is where you take all the wire you have and start going around the brim zig zagging it into place. I used size 2 stiches and a medium width to sew my wire in place. I don't have access to millinery wire so went and got jewelry wire that was 20 gage... thinking about it now I would have probably used 16 instead which is a thicker wire. But like I said light fabric hopefully it will be ok when its done. (If not I'll seam rip it and fix it. :D)
I never cut my wire until I have reached the starting point as it saves myself a LOT of aggravation.
I also double back over the edges of the wire so that it doesn't poke through the fabric. (since silk is pricey I'd rather not have it ruined.)
Continue until the whole hat is full of wires and can stand up on its own. I also went back and put some wires in between the ones in the pictures on the left.
This is how the frame will look after you have all the wires sewn into the buckram.
Next you need to repeat the same process for the crown. On the sides of the crown it is easiest if you sew it flat and then bend it into the circle you need. Below is a shot of the wire being sewn into the sides of the crown.
The crown top I sew in a "cinnamon swirl" lol! Here's a picture so you know what I'm talking about:
Since no one will be seeing my not so straight swirl when the hat is done I don't mind admitting that its not that perfect. However! It did stiffen the buckram like it was meant to.
I know the instructions say to put the whole frame together and then cover it, but I like covering each thing first and then sewing it all together. I think it gives a better line in the end.
So this is where I am going to end this first part and I will pick up next time with covering the hat.
Hope you can follow my ramblings enough to make your own Edwardian Hat. The second Part will be up by Monday the 30th of Jan at the latest. I have a lot of hand sewing to do. :D
~Eliza
I have used her pattern many times. I have even modified her pattern to make a Victorian small crown hat. Her instructions are easy to follow and once you have made it you and know the fundamentals you can pretty much make any hat.
I admit I forgot a crucial step whilst making my newest hat and I'm hoping that it doesn't affect the final product. (I will of course tell you which step I missed and inform you how to do the step.)
So this will be a two part Tutorial the first part is how to make the buckram frame. (My way... I don't quite follow all the instructions but you'll see where I differ slightly)
* I HIGHLY recommend using at least a size 14 or 16 needle as I hit the wire at least a dozen times while making my hat and if I had had a thinner needle on my machine it would have snapped. ALSO! I wear regular glasses all the time so I don't feel the need to wear safety goggles but if I didn't wear glasses I would highly recommend them. I have had needles break and pop at me. In fact I had a scratch on my face once from a broken needle flying at my face.
First off, You will need:
The instructions and the pattern that you will increase. (Its really easy I promise.)
A LOT of thread to match the color of the buckram and the color of the fabric.
A lot of wire a minimum of 8 yards of heavy wire (I use 16 gauge jewelry wire)
a yard stick
a measuring tape
HEAVY Buckram (If you can't find heavy buckram you can use the regular and double it up which is what I have done for me.)
Fabric to cover the frame
Pin cushion and pins
Wire cutter
Pinking sheers (if you are using silk this is really important since it frays easily)
Regular scissor and paper scissor
(Optional) Chocolate for when your patience run thin. ;)
The essentials.
You will need to take the pattern and draw it out on some paper. This is actually pretty easy...
take the pattern and count the square in each piece, one square equals one inch. (that is how I did it... but now that I look at the pattern again I see that it is actually 1/4" = 1") But I actually did it 1 square = 1"
So the Buckram frame measures out like this:
Once you get the measurements you can then transfer these to a large sheet so that you can cut it out as your pattern. Like this:
This is how my pattern came out and I am very pleased with the size of both the crown and the brim.So now that the pattern is traced off you need to cut it out and then cut out your buckram.
I use two layers of buckram because its not heavy buckram. I used about 2 1/2 yards of buckram. (I had originally four yards so its hard to say exactly how much. :D)
Everyone should be comfortable with pinning and cutting out patterns so I will skip this part for length sake. :D
Ok, so the step I accidentally skipped was this:
"B. Cut slash in buckram hat brim and overlap by 1 1/2". Zigzag by machine or whipstitch edges of overlap together by hand, as shown.C. Reinforce buckram as shown by zigzagging hat wire to buckram pieces. On crown top and brim make sure the wire of the rings overlaps at least 2" at the joint. Put wires on the underside of brim."
I didn't remember to do this but I am only putting one layer of Silk on top of it so hopefully it won't be too big of a problem.
How to sew the wire in: Excuse the music please. The radio was on. :D My machine sounds horrible but it is actually kind of hard to sew with a camera in your hand. I wanted everyone to get how you sew the wire on. You actually sew over it and sort of in case it in thread.
SO this is where you take all the wire you have and start going around the brim zig zagging it into place. I used size 2 stiches and a medium width to sew my wire in place. I don't have access to millinery wire so went and got jewelry wire that was 20 gage... thinking about it now I would have probably used 16 instead which is a thicker wire. But like I said light fabric hopefully it will be ok when its done. (If not I'll seam rip it and fix it. :D)
I never cut my wire until I have reached the starting point as it saves myself a LOT of aggravation.
I also double back over the edges of the wire so that it doesn't poke through the fabric. (since silk is pricey I'd rather not have it ruined.)
Continue until the whole hat is full of wires and can stand up on its own. I also went back and put some wires in between the ones in the pictures on the left.
This is how the frame will look after you have all the wires sewn into the buckram.
Next you need to repeat the same process for the crown. On the sides of the crown it is easiest if you sew it flat and then bend it into the circle you need. Below is a shot of the wire being sewn into the sides of the crown.
The crown top I sew in a "cinnamon swirl" lol! Here's a picture so you know what I'm talking about:
Since no one will be seeing my not so straight swirl when the hat is done I don't mind admitting that its not that perfect. However! It did stiffen the buckram like it was meant to.I know the instructions say to put the whole frame together and then cover it, but I like covering each thing first and then sewing it all together. I think it gives a better line in the end.
So this is where I am going to end this first part and I will pick up next time with covering the hat.
Hope you can follow my ramblings enough to make your own Edwardian Hat. The second Part will be up by Monday the 30th of Jan at the latest. I have a lot of hand sewing to do. :D
~Eliza
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