Historical Sew Monthly - April : War and Peace

Hi Folks,

Ok so the theme for the Historical Sew Monthly for April is:

April – War & Peace: the extremes of conflict and long periods of peacetime both

 influence what people wear.  Make something that shows the effects of war, 

or of extended peace.

So I decided to follow the advice of a clip of film from British Pathe, 1942 on converting hubby's old hat into something nice and stylish. Here's a  link 

Well Dr J. happened to have this old thing that he never wears so out came the scissors:

Well in truth the un-picker, and I took all the sections apart.

 I gave the crown a good steaming and then played around awhile with different pleating ideas.

 Once happy, I steamed and pressed them into place and sewed down for good measure.

 Next I did get to get out the scissors, and I chopped down the other side of the hat, so that it sat with more of a tilt, definitely more 1940's.

 To keep it's new shape I sewed millinery wire around the new base of the crown.

 And here is the new crown:

Next I played with the brim, wrapping it round in different styles to see what I wanted.

 And then sewed it on by machine, bit tricky that bit as the hat was thick and the space was small, but I got round and then covered the seam with the original hat-band sewn on by hand

The last bit of the brim I arranged into a sort of curl and sewed up by hand, no way that was going to fit into the machine.  A couple of peacock feathers later and we have this:

The Challenge:  War & Peace

Fabric: Old hat of hubby's 

Pattern: none, made it up after watchinga make do and mend video

Year: 1938

Notions: cotton, millinery wire, peacock feathers

How historically accurate is it? not bad this one maybe 8/10

Hours to complete:  about 3 1/2 hours

First worn: not yet, maybe HepCats coming up in July

Total cost: £ nothing, notions I already had and hubby didn't want the hat any more either which was just as well lol.

Next time that wardrobe conversion, a little later than I originally said, but then I had forgotten it was the end of the month and this blog post  needed doing, so till next time

Hugs and Kisses

Ally