Historical Sew Fortnight Challenge #9 black and white

Hello internet lovelies and welcome back

Yesterday was another 15th and saw us reach challenge 9 in Historical Sew Fortnightly, which is Black and White;  'Draw on the opposite ends of the shade spectrum to create something in black and white, or black or white.'

For this I thought I'd do a hat, surprise surprise..
 ok boring how about 2 hats one white and one black, the white decorated with black and the black one decorated with white.  That sounds a little bit more like it.  

both hats together

I wanted a hat design that would be versatile with lots of scope for decoration and something with a bit of a challenge in construction. Well I have a small pill box shaped wooden block so I thought I would do one with the steaming stretching technique and one with the buckram cut to shape and sewn technique and see which I liked best. For the blocked hat, I had a small amount of black velvet left over from a different project that wouldn't have been big enough to cut out using the other technique so first question would I be able to stretch and steam velvet to the same extent that felt works. Well not really, but for a first attempt not to bad and I will try again. I used a technique detailed in the wonderful site http://www.yourwardrobeunlockd.com. Which is a  sister site to foundation revealed.com which I love and one of the perks of being a member  is access to some amazing articles on how to do just about anything to do with costuming and I found one on tricorn hats which lead me to permant fusible adhesive '606' and some great tips on blocking hats. See the buttons down the side, but I digress as usual.

The other hat was a oval pattern with long thin rectangle for the crown and sewn together with interfacing and buckram added to the crown for support, I didn't use buckram across the top, to see what a softer top would be like.  When sewing a hat I normally have a whole buckram base which I sew together and then sew the outer material on to the base bit by bit. Both hats were wired but the white in the usual way and black using plastic boning sewn in, really easy to do actual. I liked this technique.

my usual way of getting the outer material fixed on.

Some photos taken during making the hats (if anyone wants more details please just let me know)..

sewn base with buckram crown

blocked base with stretched buckram

outer material for sewn hat

you can see the block in the back of this one.

sewing on lace I had dyed black

lining a single circle just bigger than the hat

lining two piece oval and rectangle sewn together

bias binding acting as edging and band

only way to get it under the needle hang sewing machine off the table

grosgrain ribbon added for band

ironing band to inside

 

What have I learnt I still prefer my original technique, but out of these 2, stretching gave the best top shape but sewing was the neatest around the band, so I need to practice stretching more to get a smooth finish.

The Challenge: black and white

Fabric: black velvet, and white satin

Pattern: block for one hat and hand drawn oval for the other

Year: around 30s for the black hat, I was hoping for a artdeco feel, and 40s for the white hat I think.

Notions: buckram, felt interlining, millinery wire, plastic boning, millinery netting, lace remnants, ribbon (for decoration and hat bands)

How historically accurate is it? probably close in technique and materials (except plastic boning) but not sure about the designs may be 6/10

Hours to complete: around 5 hours

First worn: not yet and probably won't wear white one as I don't have much to go with it, but black one might come out at Hepcats in July.

Total cost: all remnants and bit I had in the sewing room.

And little bit of history courtesy of the wonderful Wikipedia for those who want a little back ground..

Pillbox hat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pillbox hat of Jackie Kennedy

History[edit]A pillbox hat is a small woman's hat with a flat crown, straight, upright sides, and no brim. The pillbox hat was popular with the Flemish in the Middle Ages.

Historically, the pillbox hat was military headgear, often including a chin strap, and it can still be seen on ceremonial occasions in some countries, especially those of the Commonwealth of Nations. For example, the Royal Military College of Canada dress uniform includes a pillbox hat. A pillbox cap, also referred to as a kilmarnock, is a modern version of the traditional headdress worn by members of virtually allGurkha regiments.^[1] During the late Roman Empire, the pillbox, then known as the pilleus or "Pannonian cap" was worn by Roman soldiers.

The name of the headgear derives from a pillbox, a round defence structure for ground troops, popularized in World War I by the British

Well I did not know that 

Hugs and Kisses

Ally