Making hats

[Lauren]

Hello all,
I went and ordered myself some buckrum and millinery wire to attempt wide brim hats and picked myself up a reprint of a vintage book on making hats. Has anyone ever done this before and have any tips? Thanks a ton

 

[decodoll]

You'll want some crin tape/french elastic as well to cover your wired edges and fabri-tac for glueing it on. Let's see...you can wire your edges by machine using your zigzag stitch at the widest setting. What kind of buckram did you buy? If it's the standard, single layer, you'll want to double it up to prevent buckling in the future. Just cut one of each piece and one piece a little larger than your pattern piece, spritz both with a little water, then put the pieces together between two sheets of muslin and steam press. They should glue themselves together. Then cut out the one that you left a little larger so that they are the same. I imagine they probably have a lot of this in your book. If you have any specific questions, let me know.

 

[Lauren]

Awesome!!! Thank you I'll post pics once I get the stuff and play around with them a bit. I want to make those HUGE edwardian hats, so we'll see how well they come out... And I bought the buckram from Ebay, it said it's heavyweight... but I bought enough to double it up, and I've got a ton of muslin, so that should work well. Do I need to prewash the muslin?

 

[decodoll]

You're welcome! I can't wait to see what you make! No, you don't have to pre-wash it, but you will have to toss it afterwards or reserve it just for this purpose, as it'll have glue on it after.

 

[Rosie]

After getting some help from decodoll, I tried a really large brim hat. I only made a mock up since I didn't want to waste material (I can sometimes be impulsive when creating) the result was a huge floppy brim that looks like a sun hat. I like it and can't wait to try the real deal. I'll post some pictures by this weekend. I've been lazy after work these past few days and haven't really felt like doing a lot.

 

[HistWardrobe]

working with buckram

I haven't yet tried to make a 1930s-40s buckram hat, but I've made a lot of 19th century bonnets using the stuff. It comes in light, medium and heavy weights. For a cartwheel brim type hat, I'd imagine you'd probably need the heavier / stiffer variety, unless you want a floppy / drapey type brim.

To mold the crown of the hat, you'll need some sort of hat form / block. If you don't have one, for a plain round-crowned hat you can fudge it with a glass, metal or ceramic bowl (plastics are usually not heavyweight enough) that fits your head. (if you're going through your kitchen trying bowls on your head, this might be something to do in private)

A tip - if you've got a vintage wooden hat block and are working with white buckram, the old ones sometimes bleed wood color into wet buckram. Covering it tightly with saran wrap (the good kind that's sort of stretchy) prevents this problem.

The buckram is kept stiff with gelatine, which softens in water. You cut out a circle of buckram quite a bit larger than you're going to want the crown to be, wet it down so that it's pliable and mold it over the bowl (or hat form, if you have one). Smooth it into shape and weight it down so that it stays in place when it dries. When dry, you cut the crown piece to shape, leaving a bit extra for overlap with the brim piece. Make the brim piece by cutting a large circle from the buckram with a hole in the middle corresponding wth the size of the crown piece you're about to attach. (basically a "halo hat") When you attach the brim and crown pieces, reinforce this join with millinery wire. Then do a hem in the edges of the brim and reinforce with more millnery wire - you'll want the the fairly thick / stiff variety to hold a wider brimmed hat in place but the thickest millinery wire is hard to work with and gets work-hardened very quickly, so medium thick is probably a better bet.

Alternately, you can do a one piece hat by molding one very large piece of buckram over a hat form (or bowl) and then trim the brim edges to fit, but unless you're working with a two piece hat form where there's a doughnut shaped ring you put over the brim piece to weight it down, it's hard to get this shape using improvised stuff.

Both of the above methods will give you a hat with a rounded, one piece crown. Another option is to do a flat topped crown, where the top is one piece and the sides are another piece.

A good place online for millinery supplies is Leko, if you've not found their website yet. As well as buckram, wire, etc, they also have unblocked hat blanks / capelines including several with large brims but they're mostly straw / sisal or felt. They've also got some very nice vintage and vintage looking hat flowers, glass berry clusters and such goodies.

So far, my 1930s-40s millinery efforts have been focused on trying to figure out how to make those cool 1930s - 40's assymetrical hats with molded shapes in the crown without having the proper vintage hat block (as the really cool ones are horribly expensive). All my hat blocks are ordinary shaped, alas. I bought a bunch of NOS beaver felt blanks from an old millinery shop that was going out of business but so far haven't managed to produce anything other than a very blah, ordinary looking hat.

I've not yet tackled any of those wonderful-looking Vintage Vogue hat patterns and I'm thinking that wool felt would be easier to work with than beaver / fur felt to start out with, and doing some of the styles that involve draping the felt will probably be an easier bet. Anybody that's made hats from these patterns that has tips to share, I'd be grateful.

Hope the above info helps

 

[Lauren]

Wow! You have helped immensely! Thanks so much. Now... to search for the perfect bowl or go about investing in a hat form...
I think the bowl will do for now.

 

[magneto]

Congratulations! (and offer of free stuff)

Congrats on the hatmaking, that has always seemed so intimidating to me! (although, seeing those late 30's movies with the ladies' hats that, in Dashiell Hammett's phrase, "look as if you could make it with one hand and a desk blotter" ...hmmm....)

[[a little OT]]
OH! I keep meaning to post this somewhere. I have a copy of Denise Dreher's book "From the Neck Up: An Illustrated Guide to Hatmaking" which I have realized I am never going to use, and it has a tea splash on the cover so can't sell it. If any hatter here is looking for it, or just wants it, I will mail it free it to any FL member in the US (or can pick up in the SFBA). PM if interested.

 

[Rosie]

Here is the hat I made. Not a great picture but, it's difficult to take pictures of myself. This is only a mockup. I made it out of some material I had left over after making curtains. It's a bit big in the crown, I think maybe I htink my head is bigger than it actually is but I think it's pretty good for a first time try. I'll take more pictures after work tomorrow when I am more presentable and when I finish the real hat, I'll post pictures of that.

 

[magneto]

[OT] hatmaking book spoken for

(Just "FYI" that the book I was giving away up-thread has been claimed.)

...Rosie, going by that picture that is one dramatic start!

 

[BettyValentine]

How exciting!! I can't wait to see how everyone's hats turn out!

BV

 

[Etienne]

Way to go, Rosie:eusa_clap !

 

[decodoll]

Looking good, Rosie!

It was very nice of you to offer up that book, Magneto. If anyone else is looking for a good milllinery instruction book, "From the Neck Up" is the one to get. It is the milliner's "bible".

 

[CherryRed]

Looking good, Rosie!

It was very nice of you to off up that book, Magneto. If anyone else is looking for a good milllinery instruction book, "From the Neck Up" is the one to get. It is the milliner's "bible".

Thanks for posting that book title decodoll. I came accross this vintage book on CD this morning and it looked interesting. Do you know anything about it?
http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=86823

I so want a large brimmed sun hat but I don't find anything like it, so I figure I'll end up making one eventually.

 

[decodoll]

Thanks for posting that book title decodoll. I came accross this vintage book on CD this morning and it looked interesting. Do you know anything about it?
http://www.etsy.com/view_item.php?listing_id=86823

I so a large brimmed sun hat but I don't find anything like it, so I figure I'll end up making one eventually.

Yes, I do. I have it, and it's my favourite of the vintage millinery books I own. It's geared more toward the woman making her own hats at home. It's a fun read too.

 

[CherryRed]

Yes, I do. I have it, and it's my favourite of the vintage millinery books I own. It's geared more toward the woman making her own hats at home. It's a fun read too.

Great! I will put both on the top of my wish list!

 

[Rosie]

Thanks guys how sweet of you all. I'll have to get my mom to take pictures of me wearing the hat. When I go by to visit her, I'll do that.

I so want a large brimmed sun hat but I don't find anything like it, so I figure I'll end up making one eventually.

CherryRed, if you're willing to give it try, I used Vogue pattern 7600. It was relatively easy to use and it has two versions of a big sun hat. However, try to fight the temptation to make the brim too big. I didn't do that and my brim sits on the back of my neck, way too big.

 

[Tourbillion]

Speaking of hatmaking, I have been meaning to make more hats, which I haven't done for about 10 years.

I noticed that Joann Fabrics has wool felt, most of it is 20% wool 80 rayon, or 35% wool 65% rayon. One bolt of 100% wool, winter white, not black .

Anyone tried the blends with low rayon?? Can you even block those?

 

[decodoll]

I have never attempted to block anything less than 100% wool. From what I've read, in order for the felt to be blockable by hand it should be at least 60% wool. However, they were refering to wool/cotton blends, not wool/rayon. You can get wool felt by the yard at Judith M. If you haven't a problem with fur, then I would recommend fur felt as it is so much nicer than wool to block. You can find fur felt skirting by the piece at Leko's.