So, we left off with a cloche that had been wired and lacquered. I came back the next day with my head full of inspiration to finish the cloche, and to begin my next hat! W00T!
I started the day with some coffee, and grabbed my hat to get to work. Now, I thought the hardest part was behind me. Little did I know how wrong I was!! Right away, I had to grab some more petersham, shape it, and hand stitch it inside the hat. I was told that it didn’t matter so much what the stitches looked like, but I still tried to be as careful as possible.
Now was the time for the trimming! Guess what I had to grab? Yup. Moar petersham. There was some super-cool ribbon available, but sadly it’s colorful self was not petersham. So, after much careful thought, I decided to go layered for the trim around my hat. A wider black band, with a narrower piece of screaming blue over it. So, threading the needle and hand stitching was commencing once more. After I got the first layer of ribbon on, I was seriously beginning to wonder what I was thinking with this two layer situation.
What was I thinking???
I briefly debated with myself whether it was really worth it to add the blue, and maybe it would be okay with just the black, but I decided I may as well just go all out. So, more stitching. By hand. But, it was totally worth it. The blue made it a little more unique.
See? Totally worth it!
Now, it was ready for the final embellishment. While I was noodling over what my next hat was, I decided exactly what my first hat needed. Rabbit ears. Nothing less would do. So, I set to work. I sketched out the shape on some of the scrap felt from the brim, and cut out some ears. Much like the other trim, there was a debate on how to go about the earring of the hat. I knew for sure I would be trimming the edges of the ears with more ribbon. However, should they be wired? I decided against the wiring. First, to save time. Second, I decided they didn’t need to articulate. They could just be formed, and be fine. So, as I did several times before, I cut more petersham, pressed it into shape, and stitched, stitched, stitched. Once the ears were attached, I was ready to line my hat. Unfortunately, I was up against two problems. The first was that my heart was set on bright blue to tie in with the trim. There wasn’t enough there to trim my hat, so if I wanted to line my hat before leaving, it would have to be another color. However, the clock was ticking, and it turns out there wasn’t enough time. So, the hat came home with me, where I did have the blue silk I was after. I admit, it was thoroughly tempting to kick back and let the hat chill…mostly done. However, I know too well how easy it is to let something sit, and the next thing you know several months have passed and you still have a hat you can’t wear. So, I drafted, and I cut, and I sewed (on the bright side, the seams of the lining could be done on my trusty machine!), and voila!
There is a small part of me that is tempted to flop over one of the ears…but part of me also likes them pointing up. The ears!! The ears.