Large 1920s Wire and Straw Frame Cloche

In June, the lovely "Style N Time" costuming group here in Boise, is hosting the Second Annual "Great Gatsby" picnic. As I am sticking to my New Year's Ever resolution of only making dresses from my stash, I have chosen pink for this year's 1920s ensemble.  

I just finished a fabulous 1920s wide brim cloche for a wonderful friend/client and loved it so much that I hurriedly copied the frame before I sent it off.  I don't use patterns for my wire frames and knew that I would NEVER get the same shape of wire brim again.  I can now happily say that I have a pattern for a wide wire brimmed 1920s cloche!  Yeah!!!  There are so many lovely examples of wide brimmed cloches.  I fell in love with them all!

Large Brimmed Cloche Pinterest Board 

Last year's cloche was small brimmed, so this year's is going to be large!  Huzzah!!!

I fell in love with this one and it was just screaming out my name!!!  This is the inspiration for making my outfit pink!

flickr

From the Illustrated Milliner, 1923

It is a wonderful CD full of fantastic images of 1920s hats!!

The Illustrated Milliner 1923

Straw and Wire frame.  The crown was an old straw hat that I picked up at a thrift store for $1.99.  It came home with me, was soaked in hot water for half an hour then rudely molded over this mannequin's head and about 5 kitchen towels until it achieved the correct 1920s cloche shape.

I love this view.  For some reason the elliptical shape and bend of the brim makes me happy. 

The crown will of course be covered so that ugliness of it won't be seen.  The wire brim will have a netting and and pink embroidered lace covering.

Fabric selection.  The embroidered lace will have all the little sparklies removed of course.  The other fabrics are a faux dupioni silk and watered taffeta.