Italian Bonnet finished
October 11, 2004

Previous entries on the black velveteen Italian Bonnet: Part I, Part II.

I thought I had posted more on finishing the hat, but I guess I didn't. The finished hat has actually been sitting since before Costume College at the end of July. But that was the plain hat, no trim or feathers.

Finishing the Italian Bonnet

Well, lets see... what do I remember. The bonnet part is a larger oval, which is loosely cartridge pleated (sorta) and attached to the brim by hand. I recall I hate sewing with the circular upholstry needle. While it was what the directions called for, it was slow and my fingers ached, even with leather thimbles.

I also am not happy with the size, which I thought I had measured carefully for. It is bigger than the size claimed it would be for the head measurement. I am also not quite happy with how it looks on my husband. The bonnet choice I made does not stand up very high, so I may consider making the taller hat. I think he will look better in a different hat, at least without the feathers and trim. Who knows, maybe the extras will make a real difference in how it looks on him. I will try it on him when he gets home.

Polymer Clay Lion Heads

I finally started playing with the polymer clay and oh, what a mixed bag that was. I like how it takes to molding original items really easy, but trying to actually make something small and detailed is very difficult. The clay is very sticky, even more than I remember mud clay being sticky. After a bit of playing around, I finally decided to just make a mold of a lion's head button I had. It was a bit tricky to make it thin enough, but not to thin. It was also tricky getting the freshly molded item out of the mold without bending or ruining it, even using a release agent which I used talcum powder. But once I got it down, I proceeded to make, bake and paint 25 of the lions.

I matched those lion heads to 8mm pearls, and using jewelry eye wires and jump rings, worked them all together. I need to practice that ring opening and closing a bit more, as they do not look very good at this point. But they are closed and the whole thing works. I have sewn the jeweled band onto the hat with black silk thread at a few places, so it won't come off (which it really wants to do).

Fluffy Feathers

There is a feather warehouse just north of here, where I got the cockle feathers years ago. Those feathers are really pretty in the sun, with vibrant and irridescent green and bronze colors in what otherwise looks like boring dark brown feathers. I had originally bought them for a friend's wedding dress costume, and had left overs that I hope to use on various hats and things. For the natural white ostritch feathers I managed to buy 50 of them cheaply on eBay. I wanted natural colors and natural white, because if it rains I don't want dye all over a nice hat. That's the problem I found out years ago with dyed feathers.

The feathers are glued into metal (bolo) tips, an idea I got from the hat pattern. The tips are glued together in a 3-2 pattern. There are 6 total ostritch feathers in the back (2 in each tip), and I just stuffed as many cockle feathers as I could into the two front tips. The whole thing is gently sewn onto the hat with black silk thread.

Jewel Centerpiece

The center jewel I had to piece together from two findings and the carnelian stone. I got those at a local beading store, because I wanted something now and singular. I used Uhu two part glue to embed the stone into its surrounding finding, but the larger metal finding doesn't have enough flat surface to actually glue onto. So to put the stone onto that larger finding, I actually had to sew the pieces together using Sulky invisible thread. I hope there is a better way to put such findings together, but I did what I could for now. I may redo it later with thin wire or something. The whole jewel piece has also been sewn onto the hat with more of the invisible thread. It covers most of the metal-tipped ends of the feathers.

So, here are the images, in thumbnail format. Click on the pix to see larger images.

Black Velveteen Hat with Feathers and Jeweled Band
Black velveteen hat in full view	Detail of hat feathers (multiple ostrich and cockle) and main hat jewel (carnelian stone center)	Detail of lion heads and 8mm pearls band

Next dress diary entry will have photos of my husband wearing what has been made so far. I still have the sleeves and coat to make up, but that will have to wait till I get my own stuff made.

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Italian Bonnet - an update on the brim and more
July 12, 2004

I had to take time out for Mom, and her treatment appointments are around Cam's nap time, which is my daily sewing time. So until today I haven't done much on the hat at all.

I finally got the hat brim finished, with the adjustable sweat band part. Thing is, now the hat is a bit too big for c0demonkey or me. In order to put the band on, part of the inner seam of the brim had to be cut away, and it was that inner seam that helped it fit our heads. So much for making sure the pattern is loose by two fingers. So, I may end up making another hat for c0demonkey if this, when completed, is still a bit too big. It doesn't fall down his ears or anything, but there isn't a point to it being too big either. I guess we shall see.

And I am wondering if that adjustable head sweat band thingy is worth the extra ribbon. I may have to see who else it fits and how before making a final decision.

Next up is the crown, which is already sewn together and ready to make the pleats. Then it goes onto the brim.

I did manage to find a lot of white ostritch feathers for cheap on eBay. I hope they come in soon enough. I bought enough to make a few hats with, as I plan on doing other hats as I get the time.

That's it for now. I would take pics, but with black velvet, there isn't much detail to see, and I am too tired right now. Time for bed!

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Making an Italian bonnet
June 27, 2004

I have been spending a lot of today, alone, on my own, no son or husband to worry about. It's been wonderful! I need breaks like this more often, time to do what I want and just get lost in it.

Most of today has been spent working on my first official hat, using the old milinary techniques I have read about. I have made hats before, like a basic flat cap that was embroidered with a celtic knot (and still alive today), a beaded pill box and a French Hood. But this is a proper hat with all the proper buckram and wires, and it isn't going to be all floppy and badly made, with guessing how the hat goes together. I am making it for my dear husband, c0demonkey.

I am using the book From the Neck Up, by Denise Dreher, and Lynn McMaster's Men's Italian Bonnet pattern {view B}. I am modifying Lynn's directions, which are geared to basic home sewing skills. Not that hat making is hard, but the older methods use a lot more handsewing than Lynn's patterns, which either glue things, or use the sewing machine more. It will be a sturdy hat, as I have both a crown buckram (two layers) and a medium buckram sewn together, as Lynn and others have suggested. This hat should survive faire.

I like the pattern pretty much, although the brim is rather smallish it seems. Thankfully, dh and I both wear the same size, so I can test it on my own head. I sewed the buckrams together, cut it out, wired and covered the wire to the outer brim edge yesterday. The book mentions straightening out the wire before attaching the wire to the hat, which Lynn doesn't mention in her directions. It really helped me to already have a pearl foot for my sewing machine, which helped a lot in channeling the wire alongside the buckram, and zigzagging over the edges.

Today I mulled the buckram form, cut out the the velveteen fabric and am now handsewing it into place. This is what I am taking a break from. It is a lot of handsewing time, but it looks really nice, smooth and very flat.

If I do these hats as part of my business, I expect I will do more machine sewing, but it wasn't nearly as accurate in the placement of the seams as the hand sewing seems to be. I tried pinning the top and bottom fabrics together, and if I got one side flat and smooth, the other side was off somehow. That's partly why I decide to hand sew the hat instead.

I am also timing myself, for two reasons. Reason One is to see just how long it takes a beginner to sew this hat, in case I teach a class, which I may do so for Isle of Mann. Reason Two is to see how much I would end up charging for another hat like this, taking my time into account. I know I will go faster the more I learn, and if I machine instead of hand sew the hat, but it gives me a ballpark figure of time on the very outside of things.

But this hat for all it's travails is rather fun to do. Or at least the brim is. The next part will be the top of the hat, which also needs some handsewing, as it is gathered into the brim.

More later on the hat when I get another break. Back to the handsewing, just as soon as I find some more interesting music to listen to. I miss that as well.

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