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msmcknittingtonFirst things first: I knit myself a beret, using the same pattern that I've knit multiple times for friends. Instead of the Elann Peruvian Wool, which I used for all previous incarnations, I used Cascade 220 Tweed. I wanted a tweedy beret. I got a tweedy beret, but . . . just look.
I think we can all agree that this is not a good look. It's so lame that it causes my face to spasm whenever I put it on my head. The beret goes to the frog pond, and will ultimately become fliptop gloves/convertible mittens. When I get around to knitting the beret again, it will be in a solid worsted weight wool.
SEGUE!
True to my word, I decided to start the hat for my Natural Form outfit before anything else. Why? Because I freaking love millinery.
I wasn't sure what sort of hat I wanted to make. Most of the ones I was seeing were these ridiculous sugarloaf-shaped things. If I wanted ridiculous sugarloaf, I'd stick with Elizabethan, thanks.
Then I found something I thought was incredibly cute on Demode. It's the second picture under 1878. It's right in the period that dress is dated to, so win-win. The model and I even have very similar profiles. (That's right, guys, I have the face of a Victorian fashion plate: weak chin, little nose, and round cheeks. Go, me!) I like it so much that I'm thinking about cutting curly bangs for the Pabst Mansion trip. I think I'll get over that, though.
So, I went ahead and mocked up the hat using a grocery bag, tape, a pencil, and scissors. It was surprisingly easy, which makes me feel that perhaps something will go wrong later on down the road.
I started out by looking at my reference picture and figuring out what I needed to do to get a hat shape like that. As far as I can tell, the hat in the fashion plate is actually molded to that shape, rather than being buckram. Since I didn't want to search out a hatform in the right shape or jury rig something out of mixing bowls, I decided I'd have to use buckram and wire, which would cause a few changes to the shape of the hat -- a flat top rather than rounded and a notch to accomodate my hair instead of the hat projecting over it.
The following is kind or hard to explain, and I didn't take pictures, so you're going to have to bear with me.
To do this, I cut a grocery bag open flat and folded it in half the short way (not like a hot dog), and taped the edges together, so they formed a peak. I plopped this on my head, marked where I wanted the hat to end, and cut down the enormous paper bag I had on my head. From there, I eyeballed the curve of the brim and traced it out before cutting. I did some fine-tuning, then cut the notch for my hair.
This is what I ended up with. I have to confess, I look a lot like my mother in the first picture. If I could find her high school graduation pictures, where she's wearing similar glasses, it would be uncanny. (And, yes, I'm wearing my old glasses because they're more old-timey.)
Very cute for an ex-grocery bag, right? I've got it pinned to my head with corsage pins. The hole in the back isn't always going to be there; I'm going to fill it in with a little circle of buckram, but that's something I'll do at the end.
I wanted to see what it would look like trimmed, so I pulled a scarf out of my closet (the setting of all these pictures and where the draping action happened), and draped it around.
Ooh, it's so close. The slope isn't as extreme, and the point isn't as high, but I'm satisfied. I think once I get it cut out of the buckram and wired up, it will cup my head like the fashion plate. And if it doesn't? I can make it. With extreme force.
And here's what it looks like off my head. It's sort of a modified spoon bonnet shape. Or, at least, I think so. It's kind of shaped like a shovel.
And here it is flat and taped to my closet wall. If anybody would like to use this to make their own hat, feel free. Just resize the photo until the square is one inch square, using a projector or photocopier. The shaded areas are the bits that overlap in the back.
If anybody would like, I can document the "draping" process I went through changing a grocery bag into a hat pattern. Tutorials are fun, right? And I happen to love posting ridiculous photos on myself on the Internet. As evidence by just about everything I've ever done.
I think we can all agree that this is not a good look. It's so lame that it causes my face to spasm whenever I put it on my head. The beret goes to the frog pond, and will ultimately become fliptop gloves/convertible mittens. When I get around to knitting the beret again, it will be in a solid worsted weight wool.
SEGUE!
True to my word, I decided to start the hat for my Natural Form outfit before anything else. Why? Because I freaking love millinery.
I wasn't sure what sort of hat I wanted to make. Most of the ones I was seeing were these ridiculous sugarloaf-shaped things. If I wanted ridiculous sugarloaf, I'd stick with Elizabethan, thanks.
Then I found something I thought was incredibly cute on Demode. It's the second picture under 1878. It's right in the period that dress is dated to, so win-win. The model and I even have very similar profiles. (That's right, guys, I have the face of a Victorian fashion plate: weak chin, little nose, and round cheeks. Go, me!) I like it so much that I'm thinking about cutting curly bangs for the Pabst Mansion trip. I think I'll get over that, though.
So, I went ahead and mocked up the hat using a grocery bag, tape, a pencil, and scissors. It was surprisingly easy, which makes me feel that perhaps something will go wrong later on down the road.
I started out by looking at my reference picture and figuring out what I needed to do to get a hat shape like that. As far as I can tell, the hat in the fashion plate is actually molded to that shape, rather than being buckram. Since I didn't want to search out a hatform in the right shape or jury rig something out of mixing bowls, I decided I'd have to use buckram and wire, which would cause a few changes to the shape of the hat -- a flat top rather than rounded and a notch to accomodate my hair instead of the hat projecting over it.The following is kind or hard to explain, and I didn't take pictures, so you're going to have to bear with me.
To do this, I cut a grocery bag open flat and folded it in half the short way (not like a hot dog), and taped the edges together, so they formed a peak. I plopped this on my head, marked where I wanted the hat to end, and cut down the enormous paper bag I had on my head. From there, I eyeballed the curve of the brim and traced it out before cutting. I did some fine-tuning, then cut the notch for my hair.
This is what I ended up with. I have to confess, I look a lot like my mother in the first picture. If I could find her high school graduation pictures, where she's wearing similar glasses, it would be uncanny. (And, yes, I'm wearing my old glasses because they're more old-timey.)
Very cute for an ex-grocery bag, right? I've got it pinned to my head with corsage pins. The hole in the back isn't always going to be there; I'm going to fill it in with a little circle of buckram, but that's something I'll do at the end.
I wanted to see what it would look like trimmed, so I pulled a scarf out of my closet (the setting of all these pictures and where the draping action happened), and draped it around.
Ooh, it's so close. The slope isn't as extreme, and the point isn't as high, but I'm satisfied. I think once I get it cut out of the buckram and wired up, it will cup my head like the fashion plate. And if it doesn't? I can make it. With extreme force.
And here's what it looks like off my head. It's sort of a modified spoon bonnet shape. Or, at least, I think so. It's kind of shaped like a shovel.
And here it is flat and taped to my closet wall. If anybody would like to use this to make their own hat, feel free. Just resize the photo until the square is one inch square, using a projector or photocopier. The shaded areas are the bits that overlap in the back.
If anybody would like, I can document the "draping" process I went through changing a grocery bag into a hat pattern. Tutorials are fun, right? And I happen to love posting ridiculous photos on myself on the Internet. As evidence by just about everything I've ever done.