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In April, i spoke to the Durham-Orange Quilters Guild about costume craft artisanship, and part of my presentation involved providing them with a PDF of Ruby Carnahan's 1952 pattern, Hat for Ship and Shore. That pattern is one of my favorites, in that it illustrates so well how the most simple shapes can create the most versatile and sophisticated hats, and the hats made from it can be formal or casual, packable, easily reworkable by changing out a garniture, just SO full of potential for a milliner of any sewing skill level.
(Recall if you will that this pattern originally came to my attention from Barcelona milliner Cristina de Prada, in this blog post of hers. You can see Cristina's versions of this pattern as well as that of her colleague Nina Pawlowsky here.)
In doing that presentation, i was reminded of how much i love the hats i've made from that pattern, that i wear them perhaps more than any other hats, and i thought i might make a couple as birthday gifts and for my upcoming trip abroad. (I'm spending July in the UK again so there will be perhaps some posts on UK milliners and museums coming soon.)
The Carnahan hat is a one-piece pattern cut once in fashion fabric and once in lining, or twice in fashion fabrics for a reversible version. The first step in a successful iteration of this hat is fabric choice--too lightweight and it looks like a child's party hat. Which is fine if you are making a child a party hat, but most of the time that's not the goal. I have made this hat in several upholstery-weight fabrics and once in a sturdy herringbone denim (which i LOVE for an upscale casual look). In this post i'm going to show a couple of tips on using home-dec fabrics for this hat, and another unusual fabric that worked great.
Maybe a month or two ago, my coworker and I took a reconnaissance mission/field trip to Loomcraft Textiles, a large home-dec fabric outlet on I-40 near Burlington, NC, which Piedmont residents may recognize from a HUGE sign on the front that says "FREE FABRICS!" They do indeed have a large bin of free remnants of about a yard or two in length, and also an enormous warehouse of mill ends and short bolts and deep discounts. My coworker grabbed a couple pieces from the bin to use to make a dog bed, but my mind was on hats! I chose a couple lengths of heavy chenilled fabric of the sort used to upholster a couch.
( Read more... )
(Recall if you will that this pattern originally came to my attention from Barcelona milliner Cristina de Prada, in this blog post of hers. You can see Cristina's versions of this pattern as well as that of her colleague Nina Pawlowsky here.)
In doing that presentation, i was reminded of how much i love the hats i've made from that pattern, that i wear them perhaps more than any other hats, and i thought i might make a couple as birthday gifts and for my upcoming trip abroad. (I'm spending July in the UK again so there will be perhaps some posts on UK milliners and museums coming soon.)
The Carnahan hat is a one-piece pattern cut once in fashion fabric and once in lining, or twice in fashion fabrics for a reversible version. The first step in a successful iteration of this hat is fabric choice--too lightweight and it looks like a child's party hat. Which is fine if you are making a child a party hat, but most of the time that's not the goal. I have made this hat in several upholstery-weight fabrics and once in a sturdy herringbone denim (which i LOVE for an upscale casual look). In this post i'm going to show a couple of tips on using home-dec fabrics for this hat, and another unusual fabric that worked great.
Maybe a month or two ago, my coworker and I took a reconnaissance mission/field trip to Loomcraft Textiles, a large home-dec fabric outlet on I-40 near Burlington, NC, which Piedmont residents may recognize from a HUGE sign on the front that says "FREE FABRICS!" They do indeed have a large bin of free remnants of about a yard or two in length, and also an enormous warehouse of mill ends and short bolts and deep discounts. My coworker grabbed a couple pieces from the bin to use to make a dog bed, but my mind was on hats! I chose a couple lengths of heavy chenilled fabric of the sort used to upholster a couch.
( Read more... )
