Project: Tiny straw hats for Monet ballet

[labricoleuse]

One of the projects i've been working on lately has been these tiny straw hats for an upcoming piece premiered by Carolina Ballet in tandem with an exhibit of Monet paintings at the North Carolina Museum of Art, a ballet inspired by the works of Claude Monet called Monet Impressions.

This is one of the images we were given as research, Monet's Woman With Parasol. The costumes are all very much of this signature Monet color palette, and are romantic tutus and bodices cut in a style reminiscent of the period. Two of the ballerinas will have tiny straw hats--smaller than historical scale, due to the need to perform the range of ballet movement. They're sort of a take-off designwise on those smallish 1870s hats that sat at an angle toward the front of the head, usually slightly off-centered, anchored to a big piled-up coiffure in the back.

I put in a bid on them and got the gig, but then something happened budgetarily such that the materials line on headwear shrunk up, i gather? Whatever it was, i found myself figuring out how to do them on a shoestringy basis, when i'd been hoping to buy straw braid or a straw hood and sizing a shape, etc, fancy high-end fun stuff. In addition to the budget issue, i also had a time-turnaround issue--what had been a couple months' lead-time turned into "we need to fit this in two weeks." No time to order braid anyway! Yipes!

So, how'd that $1 materials-budget work out for me?



Exhibit A:
My bright idea came from a sale on those cheesy straw "decor" hats at AC Moore, the kind grandmas hotglue dried flowers and gobs o' ribbon all over and hang on their bathroom door. 99-cent score!



Because those goofball hats are totally flat shapes (i.e., wrong for the design), i decided to pop the stitches on the braid and unspiral it back to the crown first, so that i could restitch it into a more sophisticated shape. (I should probably insert a detailed discussion here of my theory of millinery design, in which i elaborate on how symmetry and parallel/perpendicular lines convey maturity, severity, or childish innocence, and diagonals and skewed juxtapositions and angled elements convey sophistication and sexuality and unpredictability...except i just gave you the Cliffs Notes on it right there, so nevermind.)



Does Tony-winning designer William Ivey Long want country-lane yellow craft-shop grandma-bathroom-colored straw hats on his ballerinas? No indeed, he does not. Thus, i dyed that hat to match the pretty teal color of the bodice and tutu it goes with. You can tell how it shrank up a bit in the dyebath, lost its shiny clearcoat, deepened its crown-dimple, and generally got more period-fashiony in appearance, losing its former "craft store special" look.

Two views of the rebuilt chapeau! Pending designer approval of this shape, i'll clean up the rough areas of the straw, possibly wire the brim edge with a black binding, we'll see.





And, just for fun, here's the other hat, which was not nearly such a big deal because we had a base-shape to work from, and i just resteamed and resized it into this cute tricorny shape and added the trimmings. Note that excellent ombre-dyed ostrich plume!

Comments

[trystbat.livejournal.com]

Now I want to buy some of those cheezy little straw hats bec. I see they have Potential!

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

They do have Potential! I am thinking i'd love to make a series of little hats just like this one, but with a mind to a more 1950s rockabilly-picnic aesthetic--maybe a bright yellow one with a thin blue gingham band, blue chenilled veiling, and two fake cherries. Or a bright red one with a black velvet band and chenille veil, a single long skinny flirty black feather, and two red plastic dice. Fun fun fun! Mount them on combs and stick them askew on a pile of curls.

Oh man, Elvisfest (http://elvisfest.loserville.net/) is coming up and everything so i even have an excuse.

I blame you for talking me into it. ;D

[jenlemus.livejournal.com]

I've friended you if that is alright.

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

Certainly! Hope you enjoy the blog!

[puzzleoflight.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I need to make a black version of the first hat above and now I know how. Thanks. :)

idea on dyeing those little hats

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

I dyed the hat in a soup-pot with plain Rit dye. At first it didn't look like it was going to take it AT ALL, and then i noticed a film developing on the surface of the water. Then suddenly it really sucked up the dye great. I think this is because the straw had a shiny coating of sealer or something on it, which came off after being submerged in the hot dyebath for a bit. Cleaning the dyepot really sucked and took a lot of elbow-grease because that sealant-scum left a ring in the pot. If i had it to do over again (or if i have to make any more of these!), i think i might try putting the hat in a crappy junk pot of plain hot water first to "cook off" that sealer-coat, THEN put it in a dyebath, just to avoid so much clean-up.

Re: idea on dyeing those little hats

[wendyhouse.livejournal.com]

I rework craft-store straw hats all the time (like this one (http://www.briarose.org/s-s/images/hpim3471.jpg) for Sense & Sensibility) - but I've never dyed them, just spraypainted or covered when need be. I will have to try that!

Do you think the "precooking" would work, or might the dye not take because the straw was already saturated with the plain water? I suppose you could dry it out in between, but that would take a while.

Re: idea on dyeing those little hats

[labricoleuse.livejournal.com]

I think the precooking would be fine--i'm no chemist, but as i understand it, water is just the vehicle by which the bond of the dye and the fiber takes place. The straw is cellulose, same as cellulose fabric fibers like cotton/linen/ramie, and i always soak fabric in a plain water bath before putting it in the dyebath. By that logic, i would think the precooking might actully be a boon for making sure the dye takes on the hat more evenly? I just bought two more for my own nefarious purposes, so i will make a followup post once i dye them using the precooking method!

[bauhausfrau.livejournal.com]

Great hat tips! Very cool to know those cheesy hats can be dyed. I've been experimenting with them quite a bit recently and have had some decent results but have yet to ahve totally remade them like you did. Mostly I've used them as the "buckram" frame and covered them with fabric so as to avoid having to make the buckram part myself.

[chloeandrudy.livejournal.com]

This is great. I'm going to share this with my costume guild. I've friended you in case you have more brilliant ideas.

[ventanarosa.livejournal.com]

This is fantastic; I, too, added you to my friends' list.