Making One Hat from Two!

Sometimes I get tired of perusing thrift shops and ebay and etsy for the perfect hat base that I "need" for a loose re-creation. In these cases I canalization existing hats. Case in point, the hat I want to wear with Ruth's Butter Yellow Tea Suit. I think that this hat is so beyond fabulous! A very demure, lovely, quiet butter yellow ribbon, sitting very primly atop a chapeaux is the perfect foil to very obnoxious red/orange poppies! How stunning and unexpected! After spending way too much time and gas trying to find a natural straw hat to use for this project, I decided to take two small vintage open weave straw hats and turn them into a large Teens hat. Here are the steps if you want to give it a try!
1. Take the hat apart. This involved getting the strips of straw apart...seam ripper and scissors came in handy.
2. Decide to leave the crown of the larger hat in tact to act as the crown for the new hat
3. After getting the strips of straw separated, I soaked them in warm water for about 10 minutes. This made them pliable and got the sizing (solution applied to straw during the forming process to hold the hat's shape) out.
4. Hang strips over shower door to allow excess water to drip off
5. Form crown of hat...soak in warm water and, in this case, formed over an antique fruit crock.
6. In an oven set at 170 degrees, crown is allowed to dry out quickly (I have zero patience when I make a hat...I want it done now!)
7. When crown is ready, the sewing on of the straw strips and forming of the brim begins. With this straw, I set the strips UNDER the existing strips about 1/4 inch and sewed it on until the brim was 4.5" all the way around.
8. Set still damp hat in the oven again to dry!

That's it! Pretty simple, just a bit time consuming! Next step, hit Hobby Lobby for the obnoxious poppies!!!

Ruth's Butter Yellow Tea Suit

Ok, so I know that everyone raves on and on about Rose DeWitt-Bukater's outfits, and yes they are fabulous. The Boarding Suit, The Jump Dress, The Flying Dress, The Swim Dress, The Luncheon Dress. They are all wonderful and the color combinations are so different and not the norm. But, have you ever stopped to look at her mom's dresses? I don't know if it is that I am old enough to be Rose's mom, or that I like to do my own thing and not follow the crowd...but I simply just LOVE Ruth DeWitt-Bukater's wardrobe! Yes, we see her now a-days in our rights for women and feminist world as being the worst possible mom in the world. But consider the world and age she grew up in. A world where men ruled the roost and women did not have rights. Period. So yes, she was pushing her daughter towards an advantageous marriage with a maggot, but in her own way, she was trying to gain comfort and stability (albeit monetarily and with a man who viewed his wife as an ornament to show off his wealth) for a daughter who did not hold to the same ideals. So, in that way, I do respect her...Just wish that she could have found a nicer guy for Rose...but then again I didn't write the screen play!
Anyhoo, when Ruth is having tea with the Countess of Rothes and another lady, she is wearing a suit that reached right through the tv screen and slapped me very unceremoniously across the face and screamed, "MAKE ME!!!" So, being the obedient seamstress, I am gathering fabrics, ribbons, shoes and millinery accouterments to fulfill my OCCD affliction! (OCCD=Obsessive Compulsive Costuming Disorder...a term lovingly applied to costumers by the Carolina Belle Fannie Kickinshoot...) Here is what I have assembled so far...
Butter Yellow Cotton with slubs
Butter Yellow faux dupioni embroidered with leaves and fun swirls
Butter Yellow ribbon for hat
Ivory shoes...because I haven't been able to find any yellow yet...

Time to Make Something Fab Out of Something Drab! (ohmygosh, that totally rhymed!)

Ok, so sometimes after I create a dress I don't get that wonderful feeling of, "ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh...Greg!!! Look, look, look!!!" I just sort of gaze upon the creation with a "ho-hum...wow a dress" look on my face and wear it anyway, because the Steampunk World's Fair is next week and I need one last dress. Then, not quite a year later, I go out thrifting and low and behold, there in the midst of a pile of muddy, scuffed, and rather disappointing cast offs, proudly sits a pair of pumps the exact, and I mean EXACT same color of plum/eggplant purple shoes that I needed last year to go with the mediocre dress!!! Amid the murmurings of my sweet husband...something along the lines of, "You are getting more play shoes? Why?", I purchase said shoes while making a valiant attempt to not vibrate out of my skin from pure excitement!!! I bring the new shoes home with almost the same reverence as I did in bringing my sweet new born babies from the hospital...ok, not really, but some of you know that feeling...and promptly set them next to the ho-hum dress....OHMYHOLYGOODNESS!!! I kid you not when I say they match EXACTLY. It is almost as if the shoes were dyed on the same day, in the same dyeing vat, with the exact same dye as the taffeta and velvet!!! Weird. You know, I think that sometimes God truly enjoys leaving these little treasures out for this little girl of His to find. And I can imagine the delight He feels in His heart when I get excited over it! What a Cool Father!
Well, ok, so this post was actually supposed to be about the hat that I made to match the dress that I haven't made yet that matches the perfect shoes...well, I am just going to post the shoes and the fabrics and color meshing inspiration and then I'll create another post about the hat!!! hahahahaha...gotcha!

OHMYGOSH!!! I LOVE this outfit!!!

Here is the link the the most fabulous Exploration outfit from the FIDM Museum that I am wanting to make!!

Motoring Duster

Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh!Ohmygosh! I am so excited! I was looking for an Edwardian exploring outfit...think Egyptian Holiday, India Safari, Evelyn from "The Mummy" sort of thing...and I found this most fabulous outfit! I immediately fell in love and my heart started palpitating at my very first glimpse of it! Now I need to locate some linen fabric somewhere and get to!!! Laaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!

Ah...Delighting in a New Dress!

Ok, so here she is! My first attempt at a teens dress. I have dubbed her Emma. If you hang around this blog long enough you will come to find out that I name all my sewing things Emma...Anyhoo, after spending the last 8 years sewing strictly gowns from the Victorian era, I have decided that I am in LOVE with the Titanic era/teens era! Why, do you ask? Let me enlighten you as to my delicious findings...1) less yardage of fabrics 2)less bulk 3)less time involved in construction, and most importantly of all 4)NO PLEATING!!!! (Imagine if you will, a crazed evil genius scientist, head thrown back, a feverish look in bright eyes, a most maniacal laughter emanating from deep within a tortured soul....aaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaha!!!!!) That is how I feel when I ponder the lovely fact that I will NEVER have to make ANY knife pleats to adorn a teens era gown EVER!!!! Did I say NEVER? Yes? Just making sure you got that point.

I have had for quite some time, a very lovely ivory shade of dupioni silk, black moire taffeta, soft ivory dotted netting, black eyelash lace, antique beaded trim (a gift from a great friend and talented lady) and an April Cornell skirt that gave its life so I can have awesome ribbon lace, just sitting around in my stash pile waiting to be turned into something wearable. One day I gave in to all the cries emanating from the pile and started draping Emma (my body form) in the styling of a 1912 dinner gown. I discovered that I owned a Laughing Moon Titanic dress and was thrilled beyond belief that I wouldn't have to draft my own pattern! Huzzah! A few days, and a few deviations from the pattern later, I tried on the new era of dress....and I loved it!!! Oh the joy! The pattern was sooooooooo EASY to work with and was such a great palette to just create from! I know that I will be making many more of this style of dress from my Mama and myself! I can't wait! Now I just need somewhere to wear it!