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Some time ago i posted part one of this two-part series, on carving a hat block from blue insulation foam. The bonnet is finally finished, so i've got some great info and images to share on the rest of the process!
First though, let me talk a bit about millinery structure from the perspective of patterning and geometry. (Bear with me here!)
Recall that this bonnet is a particularly challenging swooping "nuclear reactor" shape, which required the custom block to easily achieve. Traditional bonnet shapes are three pieces which can be flat-patterned: a brim (usually some variation of a crescent), a crown sideband (either a cylinder or a conic section), and a crown tip (a circle or oval). Most folks, even without much knowledge of geometry or drafting, can tape up a bonnet pattern sculpturally using trial and error--you put a seam in the back of the sideband cylinder or conic section, set the tip oval or circle in, fiddle with the brim crescent, and there's your bonnet, right? But with this bonnet, the shape of which is a geometric form known as a hyperboloid, there is no simple way to flat-pattern it. You *could* do it, but i felt it would be more valuable to just carve the block.
When last i posted, the hyperboloid was in a newly-formed state, shaped in the Fosshape on the blue foam block, but without a tip to the crown or trued up style lines. In the fitting, i consulted with the designer about where to cut off the brim--we drew the brim line directly onto the Fosshape--and at what angle to set in the tip. Then i cut it down to the final shape, wired both ends, and set in a tip of double buckram. I ultimately decided to mull the tip with icewool but not the hyperboloid, based on the hand of the cover fabric chosen, a monochromatic satin-face brocade with a motif of mums and bamboo.
( Read more... )
First though, let me talk a bit about millinery structure from the perspective of patterning and geometry. (Bear with me here!)
Recall that this bonnet is a particularly challenging swooping "nuclear reactor" shape, which required the custom block to easily achieve. Traditional bonnet shapes are three pieces which can be flat-patterned: a brim (usually some variation of a crescent), a crown sideband (either a cylinder or a conic section), and a crown tip (a circle or oval). Most folks, even without much knowledge of geometry or drafting, can tape up a bonnet pattern sculpturally using trial and error--you put a seam in the back of the sideband cylinder or conic section, set the tip oval or circle in, fiddle with the brim crescent, and there's your bonnet, right? But with this bonnet, the shape of which is a geometric form known as a hyperboloid, there is no simple way to flat-pattern it. You *could* do it, but i felt it would be more valuable to just carve the block.
When last i posted, the hyperboloid was in a newly-formed state, shaped in the Fosshape on the blue foam block, but without a tip to the crown or trued up style lines. In the fitting, i consulted with the designer about where to cut off the brim--we drew the brim line directly onto the Fosshape--and at what angle to set in the tip. Then i cut it down to the final shape, wired both ends, and set in a tip of double buckram. I ultimately decided to mull the tip with icewool but not the hyperboloid, based on the hand of the cover fabric chosen, a monochromatic satin-face brocade with a motif of mums and bamboo.
( Read more... )
