A little spontaneous weekend project

When I had finished the gaulle I wanted to make a sash for it, which I did. Then I realized that this is a costume that I would really like to do a nice photoshoot with some day, and for that I would need a hat. I tried with the straw hat that I already have, and it looked too small on the top of my wig. Then I decided that I needed to make a bigger hat. I had seen quite a few tutorials out there on turning place mats into hats, like this one and American Duchess has a tutorial on how to make decorative hats into an 18th century hat, here it is.  There are loads of other tutorials and instructions out there, so I can't give credit to them all, since I can't remember where I've read it.

Anyway I felt confident enough to try and make my own bergére hat.

First I bought a regular straw hat. My plan had been to find one at a second hand store, but they didn't have any with a brim that was wide enough. Still there are quite a lot of these hats out in the stores now that it's spring so I found one that cost around $12, in a natural colour.

It was floppy and of course the crown was too high, so I cut the crown off.

I also cut off the tip of the crown, so that I would have something to cover the hole with. The hat had been a bit misshaped in the store, so I dozed it in water and then let it dry flat overnight. The tip of the crown was a bit curved, and it was also a bit too small for the hole. I cut two notches into the tip, that allowed me to press it flat, then I dozed it in water and let it dry under pressure. I simply put a saucepan on it.

Then I forgot to take pictures of the last steps, it always happen when I get excited that I'm almost done with a project.

What I did was simply to sew the tip to the inner edg of the brim. I used a straw coloured buttonhole thread and sewed it by hand. The edge where the tip and the brim met didn't turn out quite as nice as the factorymade seams, but I didn't care since I was going to cover it with a ribbon anyway.

For the ribbon I took the leftovers from the sash and sewed them into a tube. I also added some pearl buttons around the tub to make small puffs. To hide where the ends of the tube met, and the fact that I didn't have enough pearls to go all the way around I took the last pieces of fabric and turned it into a bow. One thing that always amazes me is how much fabric is needed to make a bow. The length of the fabric is actually a full meter, and it's not a particularly big bow.

This is the finished hat. It's quite floppy, but I'm planning on wearing it on top of a big hedgehog, so it doesn't need a rigid brim, it will look nice anyway.

Total cost around $20 for the hat and the pearls