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I don't often name my hats, but this one, when viewed from certain angles, is kinda reminiscent of the hat styles of that sad, tragic, miserable (etc., etc.) era in our national history (hic). And crafting it was largely an experiment for me, seeing how it's my first attempt at a bound edge.
I took inspiration, as I always do, from the hatters who are generous enough to post here, most notably that Art Fawcett fellow, and Marc Kitter, who a while back posted photos of one of his hats with a hand-stitched edge binding.
The silverbelly body had been around here for months, going unspoken for, and I had yet to craft a light-grey hat for myself, so ...
The edge ribbon is some modern, cotton/rayon blend stuff, about an inch wide, (or 11 lignes, if you prefer). I was looking to use ribbon of that size, for that Whippet-like look, but not that color, necessarily. But my other ribbons in that width (or close to it) is all vintage stuff, and I figured (rightly, as it turned out) that I'd screw up such that I'd have to start over again and mess up some ribbon in the process. The white ribbon is cheap and plentiful (I got what was a 50-yard roll of it) and replaceable, so white it was.
Problems? I can count a few. White shows dirt, obviously. And man, talk about stark! I figured I had to do something equally attention-grabbing with the band and bow, to pull the eye away from the brim edge. Hence the, er, bold bow.
For those considering binding edges by hand, well, I suggest you reconsider. It's slow-going, and, really, a machine would very likely produce a neater result, at least for those of us whose hand-sewing skills could stand improvement. I really like Marc's hand-stitched edges, but that's Marc's way, to do it all by hand. And he's real good with a needle. Me, I'll be using a machine.
I took inspiration, as I always do, from the hatters who are generous enough to post here, most notably that Art Fawcett fellow, and Marc Kitter, who a while back posted photos of one of his hats with a hand-stitched edge binding.
The silverbelly body had been around here for months, going unspoken for, and I had yet to craft a light-grey hat for myself, so ...
The edge ribbon is some modern, cotton/rayon blend stuff, about an inch wide, (or 11 lignes, if you prefer). I was looking to use ribbon of that size, for that Whippet-like look, but not that color, necessarily. But my other ribbons in that width (or close to it) is all vintage stuff, and I figured (rightly, as it turned out) that I'd screw up such that I'd have to start over again and mess up some ribbon in the process. The white ribbon is cheap and plentiful (I got what was a 50-yard roll of it) and replaceable, so white it was.
Problems? I can count a few. White shows dirt, obviously. And man, talk about stark! I figured I had to do something equally attention-grabbing with the band and bow, to pull the eye away from the brim edge. Hence the, er, bold bow.
For those considering binding edges by hand, well, I suggest you reconsider. It's slow-going, and, really, a machine would very likely produce a neater result, at least for those of us whose hand-sewing skills could stand improvement. I really like Marc's hand-stitched edges, but that's Marc's way, to do it all by hand. And he's real good with a needle. Me, I'll be using a machine.
