The making of a black and white plaid hat

I realized I'd never posted about this - back in January I attended a Steampunk Exhibition Ball at the Museum of History and Industry in Seattle. Part of the evening's festivities were fabulous hat and facial hair competitions. I decided I was going to make myself a new hat for the occasion. My wonderful friend Stephanie, who appropriately travels under the name Plaidbrat on LiveJournal was bravely tackling a dress-making project for me, with this wonderful black and white plaid I'd unearthed from the stash early last year. It had a velvet floral scrollwork pattern on one side. She did the jacket for me with this pattern out, but we decided it'd be just too busy for the whole outfit, so the plain plaid side is out for the skirt.

I didn't take enough pictures of the making in progress, I'm afraid, so bear with me.

For the hat, I wanted big. Really big. And I had these six fake crows that had been sitting around on top of my bits and bobs cabinet, staring at me accusingly for not having used them yet.

I started out using household items for my pattern, a ceramic serving dish for the brim and one of our salad plates for the crown.



I added another 3" around tracing the platter for the sides and back, and about 5" in the front. It's amazing, because I fail consistently trying to draw a straight line with a ruler, but managed to freehand an almost perfectly symmetrical oval. ???

The brim is made with two layers of buckram sandwiching a spiral of millinary wire, glued into place. I covered the entire hat, inside and out, with felt, and then covered it with the fabric. Then out came the flowers, birds, feathers, and maribou trim. Here's what I ended up with:





A friend of mine swore that the birds were staring at her whenever we talked.





And here's the whole outfit:

New parasol, and lots and lots of pearls!

First, another new parasol - stripes!

Steampunk Lolita Black and White Striped Parasol Lucite Handle OOAK




And last night I completed a personal project, making myself an obscenely long strand of knotted pearls:


106 inches of knotted pearls by *dbvictoria on deviantART

I saw something similar to this in a department store before Christmas, and it's been on my brain ever since. So now I have my own! I'll probably make another one to see if it's a marketable product for me, but in the meantime I'll just enjoy my own set!

A Year in the Making, day 299

Been a bit distracted the last few days - cleaning house, as my father decided to come in at the last minute for the holiday weekend. It's amazing how quickly the clutter takes over the house. Creep creep creep goes the clutter! But I did get a couple of new pieces made, and the pieces from the weekend listed as well.

Pyrite and Antiqued Sterling Necklace



Tequila Sunrise - Citrine and Burgundy Red Glass Necklace on Sterling Box Chain




I also made a bunch of trim for parasol ruffles. I started with 2 yards of pinstriped fabric, cut out 3" strips on a diagonal, folded it over and ironed it, then finished the edges. I'd initially done about 6 yards for the first gent's brolly I posted a few days ago, and decided Tuesday night to go ahead and cut and finish the rest, as I have two more umbrellas that are asking for similar treatment. I knew I was accumulating lots of strips, especially after I went through almost 6 bobbins sewing it, but it wasn't until I got done and measured it, at just short of 24 more yards, that I decided I may have gone a bit over the top!

Here's what 24 yards looks like:



I've got the ribs covered and trim around about 1/3 of the next brolly. Who knows when I might get it finished, though, with company in town. There's also something blooming at the moment that is making me very cranky - my eyes have been itching and watering for 4 days now. We were crabbing about having such a cold rainy spring, but now that the weather's shaping up I'm praying for rain again to wash whatever this crud is out of the air.

Here's the pieces from the weekend, now listed in my Artfire shop:

Blue and Silver Necklace Bracelet and Earring Set



White Glass Strung Necklace with Silver



Waiting for the benedryl to kick in. Hopefully this isn't riddled with typos, as I'm squinting at the screen and typing in bursts between sneezes. Unhappy Kitty tonight.

A Year in the Making, day 296

It's been a busy weekend - I had two social events on Friday, a promo photoshoot for Steamcon and a movie viewing party on Saturday, and today was Pride Parade!

For one of Friday's gatherings I made what I call my Lemon Dream Cake:



It's always a favorite.

I finished the dress for the parade Friday night, and made a hat from scratch to match. I've made one other hat from scratch, but that was with a pattern. This time I completely winged it, with the aid of a pre-made piece I picked up ages ago at Display and Costume. I still had buckram left over from my previous project, and used scraps from the dress-making for the fabric.

I started off using a hat I reworked for my daughter for the basic shape:



I did a double thickness for the brim, for stiffness:



Traced out the crown for the opening on the brim pieces:



Cut out the circle for the crown and tabbed it:



Traced out the top of the crown - the outer border is the seam allowance. Neglected to take a picture, but this piece was tabbed too after I cut it out.



The assembled buckram framework:



The line you see around the brim is aluminum wire tacked on for stiffness, to keep the shape of the brim.



Here's the underside:



The fabric was tabbed also, and sewn on:





I made a band of the contrast fabric from the gown for around the crown:



Here's where I stopped taking pictures because I was running out of time. Some black cotton was used for lining, and the edges finished around the inside of the crown and around the rim of the brim with black bias tape, and then I finished it with daisy gimp:





And here's a shot of me in the dress and hat, and the necklace which inspired the gown, from today's Pride Parade in downtown Seattle - unfortunately I blinked.

A year in the making, day 292

A few pictures accumulated in the camera, but I neglected to download them yesterday.

To start off, a picture of Sunday's dinner, the savory bread pudding:



It was quite tasty, let me tell you.

And more tastiness was made yesterday, a new batch of jam, with strawberries, cherries, and peaches:



Yesterday, I also cut out the pieces for a new dress for myself. Ever since I received this necklace, I've been thinking I needed a spectacular dress with which to showcase it. I had some black on black fabric already, and when I went in search of a contrasting fabric for it, I found this wonderful white taffeta with a black velvet pattern:



The dress I'm making with it is McCall's M6097. For some reason, they have this labeled as a "Victorian" pattern.

...

*blinkblink*

...


Ooooooookay. I guess maybe because the back has a bustle? Even though the naming boggles the brain, it's still a lovely dress, and it's not the pattern's fault someone labeled it so ridiculously.

All the fabric got cut out yesterday, and I got the bodice together today. It's being modeled by Phyllis, my new dress form:





Tomorrow I'll tackle the skirt. Tomorrow afternoon, that is. Late tomorrow afternoon, most likely. I have a lunch date with a friend and a strawberry margarita.

A Year in the Making, day 169

Playing around with photoshop again, a picture I took out at the waterfront a few months ago, a tree completely bare of leaves against a drab sky, transformed into a fantasy landscape:


The Tree by *dbvictoria on deviantART