Sunday Spotlight: Fall Leaf Hats

As I recently made another fall leaf hat myself, I thought today I'd pull together a collection of autumnal leafy hats for you all to admire! The styles differ, some entirely made up of leaves and other just with a few leaves as an accent but all of them are super adorable and I'd love on of each for my collection! If only such things were possible ;) I have two tutorials here on TCH for making a fall leaf hat, so if you can't find a vintage one to your liking I totally suggest making your own. As for the hats below, some are still for sale so make sure you click on the photo to be taken to the source in case you can still snatch one of these up!

Another Little Fall Leaf Hat Tutorial

This isn't the first felt leaf hat tutorial I have posted here on TCH, but since the style I made today is a bit different I thought I'd put up a little tutorial. :) I am busy busy today in the sewing room, so today you get a peek inside at just what I'm working on!

I knew I wanted a mustard yellow hat to wear this fall but I couldn't seem to find a vintage hat in a style I'd like, so I decided to make one of course! I purchased some lovely 100% wool felt on Etsy to make a hat, but was stuck on what style should I make? That was when I spotted this perfect hat on Etsy...

Etsy Shop

I sorta can't believe I haven't hit "BUY IT NOW" (as I write this the hat above is still for sale and for an absolute steal!) but I know as much as I love it it will be totally lost in my brown hair. I wouldn't want a cute hat like that to go to waste blending right into my hair color, so I leave it to one of you to snap it up instead! Still the overlapping felt leaves is a worthy idea.

What would you need to make a similar hat to mine?

-Wool felt (or craft felt, but the wool is so much nicer and more authentic looking!)

-Scissors (and possibly a craft/exacto knife)

-Card-stock to make your patterns

-Millinery Wire

-Velvet leaves (optional, you could just make bigger felt leaves, I found the velvet ones at Joann)

-Needle and Thread

So I went to work on my nice wool felt cutting out leaf shapes...

Simply print out or draw a leaf shape of your choosing and trace onto your felt. Cut out quite a few of these.

I made a few larger leaves with interior cutouts (on the right in the above image) to add as an accent on one side of the hat. Just use an exacto knife to carefully slice out teardrop shapes from the inside of the leaves.

To make a base for the hat I took a circle of millinery wire and bound it shut with plumbers sealant tape. This tape is great for millinery wire! #notcoutureapproved :) I used to use floral tape sometimes but find it too sticky, this stuff is better. I carefully bent the wire into a long bean-ish shape to fit my head.

Then I covered the wire base with a strip of felt wound around the wire and secured with a few stitches in matching thread.

To make a foundation for the smaller felt leaves I used some large velvet leaves I found on sale at Joanns to fill in the space between the wires. I simply stitched the parts of the leaves that touched the wire (and each other) down. This is why wrapping the wire in felt is excellent because you can sew right into it no problem! These leaves came in various colors and types and look very like vintage velvet millinery leaves...so I stocked up! I mean, I seriously bought a ton of them! They were less than a dollar a pack, so get thee to a Joann ladies!

Once you have a hat base essentially together, start layering your felt leaves and tacking them down, overlapping each leaf over the last and adding a stitch through both leaves and into the covered wire beneath.

Keep layering on both sides of the hat.

Before you know it, presto! A fall-tastic hat appears! I pinched the larger leaves with the cutouts at their base for some dimension and stitched them onto one side for some extra flair. I really can't wait to wear this new hat and am really tempted to make another in orange or perhaps red? Or every color? The options are endless! The same techniques could be used with any shape really, like flowers for spring :)

How is your fall crafting going? You have started haven't you ;)

Making a Brimmed Hat: Attaching the Crown and Brim (& Finishing the Hat!)

Well hello there! It took me a little while to finally finish up my most recent millinery project, I've been a busy bee lately! Today I'll be going over how I finished putting the hat together once the crown and brim have been covered with fabric individually. 

Once you have covered the pieces of the hat, it is simply a matter of stitching the crown onto the cut tabs of the brim.

To hold the crown and brim together while I sew them together, I pin from the outside in through the corner while holding the two pieces together like you see below.

Above you can see what the pinning looks like from the outside.

Now simply stab stitch through the many layers to stitch the crown and brim together. That's it? Yes, and oddly it ends up feeling quite secure.

Of course then there are visible stitches on the outside of the stand, but of course you will be tacking on a ribbon right? Yes indeed, I've gone for a tiny velvet ribbon in this case.

What about the inside? Well officially you should stitch in a lining, I usually do a lazy lining of a circle of silk larger than the crown opening gathered in place and stitched along the edge. Over this lining you will stitch in the petersham head ribbon, or if you are really really lazy like me you can skip the lining (...yep) and just sew in the ribbon.

 
Then we have reached the very best part of hat making, decorating the hat! I had this vintage wide striped ribbon I bought just for decorating a hat such as this, and it dominates the shape for sure. I decided to pinch the ribbon into a sort of butterfly shape and I love how it came out!

I hope you all enjoyed watching this hat come together, I am certainly excited to wear it! I need more 1940s dresses to wear all of my hats with :)

Making a Brimmed Hat: Covering The Brim

Back to our ongoing hat project, did you miss the usual post on Wednesday? I took a bit of a break over the weekend so I had some catching up to do this week! Now that we have the separate pieces of the hat (the crown and brim) constructed, it's time to cover each with fabric before we can attach them together!

I have explained how to cover the crown portion of a hat a few times here on the blog, so check out those posts here and here. Today I'll be showing you how I usually go about covering the brims of my hats, which involves using a bias strip around the brim edge for a nice smooth finish :)

Of course the first step in covering the hat brim is to cut out the two pieces, the top and the underside. I simply trace the hat brim onto the back of my chosen fabric. A note on fabrics though- something too thin is hard to make look perfectly smooth and something too thick is really hard to wrangle. I have used thin silks before but they will show more "flaws" or texture through them so your hat base underneath has to be pretty perfect under the silk to make everything look pretty in the end. For this hat I am using a ribbed faux moire finished polyester fabric (left over from a corset project from ages ago) that has a nice grosgrain ribbon-ish weight. I cut out the two circles for the top and underside of my brim, plus a 2" wide strip of bias for finishing the edge of the brim. I don't just cut bias for the fashion fabric though, I also cut 1" wide strips of bias from a lightweight fusible interfacing!

I like using fusible interfacing strips like these to further smooth and finish the wired edges of my buckram pieces. Below you can see how I pull it around the outside edge of the brim and iron/steam it into place.

I also add interfacing to the edge of the crown stretching it smooth as I iron it or steam it in place. This step really helps to smooth raw buckram edges into something both sturdy and pretty. I use a wadded up piece of muslin in my hand to support the "corner" of the crown while I steam and iron, which also helps protect my hand--no burns please!

Pieces ready for pretty fabrics!

I cut a smaller than crown sized opening out of the brim pieces and then center them in place. Here for this post I am doing one side at a time so I can show you two methods of sewing these pieces to the buckram brim, but there is nothing stopping you from pinning both top and underside on at once (sandwiching the buckram layer). The first way to sew this step is by machine, and I'd recommend a more open presser foot like a zipper foot but you can see in the photo below I just used my regular presser foot while doing this. Take your time guiding the brim edge around under the needle and make sure to stay about 1/4" away from the edge and thick wire (as that wire will definitely break your needle if not more were you to hit it!).

The other way to sew this area in place is by hand of course, and to do this I use a basic back-stitch.

Once your brim is essentially covered, trim any excess fabric sticking out beyond the wired edge and iron your 2" bias strip into double fold bias tape. Pin this bias strip around the brim edge stretching it a bit to get a nice rounded finish.

Slip stitch this bias into place on both sides individually. You could sew this with the machine, either by sewing the top side with the bias cut edge and wired edge together and then folding the bias over and under after and hand stitching the underside (a very pretty finish!) or by sewing through both layers with it pinned the same as above.

Once you have this bias trim sewn around the edge your brim is covered! I snip the inside to the inside crown wire on both the top and underside to prepare for attaching the crown to the brim.

This isn't the only way to cover a hat brim of course, but it is my favorite way currently as it creates such a pretty and smooth finish. I also like the design possibilities inherent in this technique, a solid colored hat with the edge bias in pretty stripes or a contrasting color perhaps for example. I have made hats by cutting the underside brim piece larger (1/2" around the outer edge larger) and folding the excess over the edge and sewing it down first, then sewing the top brim piece along the edge with a slip stitch for a seam that runs along the edge. I just find this bias trimmed method easier and when I'll be adding trimmings to the hat anyway I don't mind what the plain hat underneath looks like much anyway!

I hope you all are enjoying watching this hat come together, next it will be time to stitch the covered crow and brim together and put in the lining!

Making a Brimmed Hat: Constructing the Brim

Alright, so after last week's post you have your hat designed and the crown constructed right? Of course. So now you have got to put together the brim. Start by tracing and cutting out the size circle you desire for the brim of your hat from the buckram. Next you will have to cut out the center for where your crown will go, and to do so you will need the paper pattern in the size of your crown centered on the buckram brim.

Measure the center of the larger brim circle to get the placement of the crown centered, or put it off center for a different design, it's up to you! Once you have the crown marked draw another smaller circle 1/2"-3/4" smaller inside the perimeter of the traced crown.

Like so, this is the bit we will be removing. Cut along the smallest circle to remove the excess.

Now you must wire both the inside and edge of the brim for some nice stability. Millinery wire is quite firm, so wiring the smaller opening can be sort of tricky and annoying. I usually cheat a bit and hold my wire to the correct size by securing the overlap with some plumbers thread sealing tape or floral tape (even masking tape would work in a pinch). You can either remove the tape after stitching most of the wire down, or just leave it as I did for this hat, as no one will ever know it's there in the end.

I'll note that I wouldn't normally use a contrasting color thread like this, but I wanted you to see my stitches  (in all their sloppy glory eek!). Stitch the circle of wire down onto the traced crown in the center of your hat brim buckram. I use a blanket stitch to do so pulling each stitch moderately tight.

After you have secured the wire onto the hat crown opening you can clip your curve, yes just like in sewing clothing one must clip their curves. :)

You can see above how the crown will eventually attach to these clipped tabs of buckram, but attaching the crown to the brim comes after you are done covering each in fabric!

Instead the next step is to wire the outside edge of the brim. To do so cut wire a few inches longer than the diameter of the brim edge and stitch it on using blanket stitch once again.

Once you've wired the brim edge you are done with this step! I'll again note that these methods of mine here are considered more the "theatrical" way to make hats, as in hats made in the theater not by couture milliners, but if you're anything like me you want a hat faster rather than perfect. Now that you've got a crown and a brim it is time to cover them, but of course I'm a tease and will go over that next week ;)