Hats Archives - Creative Stitchers

Competition Coat

A few weeks ago I made a tailored coat from a multi-coloured fabric with piping on the seams and buttonholes etc, it took many hours to complete and I was rather proud of the result, I know some of you have seen it. Well, I entered it into a competition in an American sewing magazine which I subscribe to and to my surprise it was selected as 1 of 5 semi-finalists. It is was the down to the public to vote for their favourite from the selected 5.

I can’t tell you how thrilled I was at being chosen as a semi-finalist, and even more thrilled to report that I WON the competition with my coat.

So thank you to all of you who voted for me.

The Coat

I made this coat using my own drafted pattern and a length of fabric from my ‘stash’. The coat has been underlined with silk which gives it a luxurious weight and feel to it. I used horsehair interfacing for support adding additional layers to the shoulder area and the top back.

For the main body of the coat I used a quality textured fabric which graduates in colours from a mid-grey through to navy/black and back to grey. The fabric also has a ‘circle’ design with flecks of black on top. The fabric was carefully prepared so that the design of the fabric flowed around the coat without interruption, matching up the colours and design at the seam lines. I added a raspberry/red piping to highlight the princess style design lines on the front and back of the coat, the collar, the side welt pockets, the sleeve back seam and at the top of the sleeve/shoulder area. I also used the piping for the bound buttonholes at the front opening and on the sleeves. The buttonholes are then further adorned with silver ornaments stitched alongside. The buttons are covered in the same fabric ensuring that the buttons graduate in colour to match each placement area on the coat.

The coat is fully lined using the same raspberry/red fabric as the piping for the main body of the coat whilst I used a grey silk for the sleeves. The lining is attached on the inside with a grey piping at the front and back neck facings edges. And finally I embroidered my own label on the back neck facing.

Then finally I made a matching cloche hat with the left over pieces of fabric.

18th December 2016 By creative stitchers

Hats

The Hat

Now that the dress is finished I now need to work on the accessories, so I bought this very plain white hat and I am now going to work on it to improve its appearance!!

I set to with the hat, removed the rather plain band and the internal petersham ribbon but leaving the millinery wire around the brim in tact, this just left me with the bare hat. I then spent another hour or so placing and pinning various bits of matching fabric to my dress onto the hat until I was satisfied with the design. Tracy had again made me a lovely embroidered embellishment to match the dress so I wanted to show this off to its best advantage.

With a plan in mind I set to and carefully hand stitched the fabrics and the embroidery around the crown of the hat taking the tiniest of stitches on the outside so as not to spoil the effect. This left me with rather a lot of stitching on the inside of the crown, this I wasn’t too keen on so I set to and made a lining for the crown with the silk habotai I had used to line my dress. I carefully hand stitched this into place and replaced the old internal band with a better quality petersham ribbon. This now in place I then carefully stitched the remainder of the fabric into place around the brim along with a few more beads. I finished off the edge of the brim with the white silk bias binding.

I love to wear hats and I am really pleased with the outcome of this one and think it shows off the dress to its best advantage.!!

15th December 2016 By creative stitchers