Sewing – Edwardian Hat & Jacket

My Edwardian outfit is now really done! I finished my hat last week, but didn’t manage to get the hairstyle completely right on the first try. This weekend I tried again, with a little more success. I also managed to finish my jacket last week, so I now have proper images of both! Hopefully, I’ll be able to wear the entire outfit in 2 weeks, provided it doesn’t rain that weekend.

The plan for the hat was ‘big’, and I was strongly inspired by this hat in the met:

I already had some black ostrich feathers from antique shops, and leftover black velvet.

I started with taking the dimensions from the inspiration and making a paper version. I then cut down the height quite a bit, because it looked strange, and ended up with this paper version.

 

The next step was to cut the buckram. Because I bought it in LA and had to take it home on a plane, it was folded:

The brim of the hat was cut across some folds, and the buckram wasn’t flat anymore. So I wetted it, and placed it flat to dry in the hopes the folds would dissapear. Only problem: I needed something to keep it down which would still let it dry. So all the tea-lights I never light finally got a purpose! It looked a bit funny though…

It turned out a little wobbly, but good enough. Next step, construction!

I folded the sides of the crown inwards and outwards by cutting slits into them, and then stitched this to the crown and the brim.

Around the brim I put steel thread to strengthen it. This I attached by machine, which took some careful sewing, but I managed not to break my needle!

So now I had a hat, but not a very pretty one. I covered the hat with black velvet. First the crown, which I stitched to the buckram around the sides. The side of the crown and the brim I sewed together, then putting it on by sliding it over the crown. I turned over the raw edge at the top to the inside, and turned the raw edge around the brim to the underside.

The bottom I covered with black cotton, following a similar process as for the velvet. around the brim I turned over the cotton and sewed it to the velvet. Inside the crown, I just cut a rectangle strip and made a bag-like inside with a cord, so I can adjust the size of the crown on the inside. (clearer picture will follow).

So now I had a fully covered hat! It’s still a bit plain though, so this is where the feathers came in. I had 2 of batches, one bigger than the other. It took some careful placing, but I managed to sew them all to the hat. I covered the end of the feathers with a velvet ribbon bow.

So I now have a finished hat! I really love how big and dramatic it is. Even though it’s not perfect (the fabric around the crown isn’t as tight as I’d like, I’ll probably attatch it differently next time), I still think it’s a pretty good first hat!

The inside can be made smaller with a piece of string. I don’t really need this with full Edwardian hair though! Pictures of me wearing it at the end of the post!

I also finished my Edwardian jacket. I drafted the pattern myself, the plan was a jacket which was open in front to still show my blouse. I wanted it to reach just to the top of my skirt, have 3/4 length sleeves and velvet details. I didn’t plan on the lapels, but when drafting the piece of cotton I was using happened to have the perfect shape, so I kept them! I used a similar sleeve pattern as in my blouse, just with a little less width and a little shorter. I also pleated the sleeve caps instead of gathering. Pretty happy with how it turned out, I now have a proper walking costume!

I hope to get pictures of the whole ensemble on me in a couple of weeks, but for now a picture of the hair/hat test!

 

 

This was the second attempt, as my hair needs to be pretty big to support the hat properly. I only had a hair rat for the front of my hair at first, and the hat kept sliding off. I also tried just back-combing, but my hair really doesn’t have enough volume for that to work. My attempt was for this hairstyle:

I ended up buying 4 bun-filling rings for a sock bun, like these:

I cut all of them open and sewed them together into a big ring. This allowed me to put this on my head and use as ‘filler’ for the rolls. My hair is pretty thin and sleek, so I need filler. This worked quite well, and made my hair big and sturdy enough so I could put my hat on it and make it stay in place.